Frank S. Benyon. Direct investment, National champions and EU Treaty freedoms. From Maastricht to Lisbon

• Autores: Fernando Losada Fraga
• Localización: European journal of international law = Journal europeen de droit international, ISSN 0938-5428, Vol. 22, Nº 3, 2011, págs. 925-927
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
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• Resumen

  • Free movement of capital and freedom of establishment are among the very few areas of the European Union�s internal market law the limits of which still need clarification. The political relevance of both freedoms is remarkable, particularly in the current context of economic crisis. This was proven again last summer when the government of Portugal overruled Portugal Telecom shareholders� decision to sell to Telefónica part of their shares in Vivo. The conflict between Member States� desire to protect strategic public interests through the fostering of �national champions� and the economic freedoms as conceived in the EU treaties has usually been solved by the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) in favour of the latter. 1 But the tension between domestic political will and supranational legal commitments still persists, and, as a result, national governments try to take advantage of any legal gap in order to retain some power and to avoid some of the constrains the economic freedoms impose on them. Accordingly, the ECJ�s case law on the field is increasing.

    As a response the scholarly literature on free movement of capital has been growing. Among the monographs on the issue is the book under review, which aims at explaining the legal regime applicable to direct investment in the European Union. With this concept reference is made to any investment made from one state into another that involves some control of, or at least participation in the control of, the �