This article seeks reasonable alternatives to European
Commission’s plan to phase-out all the intra-EU bits. The authors strongly
believe that a shift towards settlement of intra-EU investment disputes in
domestic courts would imperil legitimate expectations of investors, who made
their investments relying on the bit undertakings of the EU host states.
Therefore, the article searches for a middle ground, which would allow
preserving the existing investment protection standards while addressing the
core concerns of the European Commission. In particular, the authors analyse the
prospects of empowering the European Commission to issue amicus briefs on the
questions of the EU law, which would be binding on the investment tribunals.
Under such a scheme, the European Commission would perform the function
comparable to that of the CJEU in issuing its preliminary judgments. The
proposal could provide a win-win solution for both the European Commission and
investors.