ERDEM-NEWSLETTER-2018-metin

180 NEWSLETTER 2018 Upon the award of the tribunal 3 , concluding that Slovakia had violated the BIT, the setting aside proceedings began before the Ger- man courts, where Slovakia challenged the jurisdiction of the tribunal by alleging the incompatibility of Article 8 of the BIT with articles 18, 267, 344 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”). While the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt rejected the incompatibly claim 4 , the German Federal Court of Justice referred some questions to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling 5 , who issued the highly criticized Achmea judgment 6 . The Achmea Judgment of the CJEU Through this judgment, the CJEU underlined the primacy of EU law, which must be applied uniformly by the member states and the tribunal. It ruled that the BIT is contrary to the TFEU provisions since it is incompatible with the preliminary ruling procedure, CJEU’s ex- clusivity in interpretation and application of EU treaties and anti-dis- crimination. Hence, it concluded that articles 267 and 344 TFEU must be interpreted as precluding provisions of the BIT clauses giving the arbitral tribunals the jurisdiction to solve the intra-EU BIT disputes. 3 The award of the arbitral tribunal: Achmea B.V. v. the Slovak Republic, UNCIT- RAL, PCA Case No. 2008-13 (formerly Eureko B.V. v. the Slovak Republic), https://www.italaw.com/sites/default/files/case-documents/ita0309.pdf (Access date: October 2018). 4 The decision of the High Regional Court of Frankfurt: Oberlandesgericht Frank- furt am Main Beschl. v. 18.12.2014, Az.: 26 Sch 3/13, https://www.italaw.com/ sites/default/files/case-documents/italaw7079.pdf (Access date: October 2018). 5 The Federal Supreme Court Decision on the referral of some questions to the CJEU for preliminary ruling, Bundesgerichtshof, I ZB 2/15, 3 March 2016, http://juris. bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bgh&Art=pm &Datum=2016&Sort=3&nr=74612&linked=bes&Blank=1&file=dokument.pdf, the English translation of the decision: http://www.allenovery.com/SiteCollection- Documents/Translation_German_Decision.pdf (Access date: October 2018). 6 For comments on the judgment: Fouchard, Clément; Krestin, Marc : “ The Judg - ment of the CJEU in Slovak Republic v. Achmea – A Loud Clap of Thunder on the Intra-EU BIT Sky!” http://arbitrationblog.kluwerarbitration.com/2018/03/07/ the-judgment-of-the-cjeu-in-slovak-republic-v-achmea/; Risse, Joerg; Oehm , Max : “European Court of Justice Stops Investment Arbitration in Intra-EU Dis - putes”, https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=4b933d32-d9ee-43c8- bff4-7aa39a2faa88 (Access date: October 2018).