The EU aims to strengthen the business environment for EU investors. On 19 July 2018, the European Commission issued a guidance to clarify EU investors' rights and to help them to invoke their rights before national administrations and courts.
With the objective to set a predictable, stable and clear regulatory environment, the European Commission restated that EU investors can no longer rely on intra-EU bilateral investment treaties (called 'intra-EU BITs') and the investor-State arbitration clauses they contain. These treaties are unlawful as they overlap with the EU single market rules and discriminate between EU investors, which was confirmed by the Court of Justice of the European Union in a recent judgment (on the Achmea case).
The EU provides indeed a comprehensive legal framework protecting investors, including general principles of EU law (e.g. free movement of capital, proportionality, legal certainty and legitimate expectations), fundamental rights (e.g. the right to property, non-discrimination) as well as sector-specific legislation (e.g. transport or telecommunications).
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