La competenza arbitrale della Corte di giustizia dell'UE e il Fiscal Compact

The purpose of this paper is to bring into focus the provision laid down by art. 273 TFEU, which entitles Member states to resort to the European Court of Justice in order to settle international public law disputes arising amongst themselves. In this case, the ECJ acts as a court of arbitration, with its jurisdiction predicated on a « special agreement ». This provision was originally introduced in the Treaty of Rome (1957), but Member states have rarely relied upon it over the years. With this in mind, the use of special agreements in the Treaties establishing the EFSF and the ESM as well as in the Fiscal Compact is striking and deserves an in-depth analysis. In particular, close attention is paid to the Fiscal Compact, whereby the signatories set up a rather complex mechanism in order to commence legal proceedings before the ECJ. The paper is divided in two parts. The first part touches upon the rationale and the scope of art. 273 TFEU. The second part assesses the consistency of the judicial enforcement mechanism envisaged in the Fiscal Compact with EU law by also taking into consideration the ECJ’s case-law, with particular attention given to the Pringle judgment.