Court of Justice of the European Union

PRESS RELEASE No 15/22

Luxembourg, 25 January 2022

Judgment in Case C-638/19 P Commission v European Food SA and Others

The General Court erred in law in finding that the Commission lacked competence to examine, in the light of the law on State aid, the compensation paid to Swedish investors by Romania in implementation of an arbitral award

While that award had upheld the argument of those investors that that Member State had unlawfully repealed a tax incentives scheme before its accession to the European Union, the aid measure referred to by the Commission was nevertheless granted after that accession

On 29 May 2002, the Kingdom of Sweden and Romania concluded a bilateral investment treaty on the promotion and reciprocal protection of investments (‘the BIT’), Article 2(3) of which provides that each contracting party would at all times ensure fair and equitable treatment of the investments by investors of the other contracting party. The BIT provides, in addition, that disputes between investors and the contracting countries are to be settled by an arbitral tribunal. (...)