Micula Bros & ors. v. Romania (ICSID Case ARB/05/20)

European Commission's DG for Competition has issued an injunction to prevent Romania from honouring a US$250 million award rendered by an ICSID tribunal chaired by Laurent Lévy.  The Commission argued that payment of the ICSID award would constitute illegal state aid under EU law and render the award unenforceable within the EU. In Ioan Micula, Viorel Micula and others v Romania (ICSID Case No ARB/05/20), an ICSID tribunal determined that Romania had breached the fair and equitable treatment obligation in the Sweden-Romania BIT and ordered Romania to pay damages to the five claimants. The EC considered that the implementation of the arbitral award would constitute new state aid, granting the claimants an economic advantage not otherwise available on the market. In May 2014, the EC issued a suspension injunction against Romania pursuant to Article 11(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999. On 2 September 2014, Ioan Micula and the other parties brought an action against the Commission claiming that the court should annul its decision to issue Romania with the suspension injunction (see Case T-646/14).  On 7 November 2014, the EC published a notice in the Official Journal seeking views on an in-depth state aid investigation into the implementation by Romania of the ICSID arbitral.

 

Source : PLC