The Micula brothers, Ioan and Viorel, together with three
companies that they control, brought ICSID proceedings against Romania in July
2005. An ICSID Tribunal rendered its final decision on 11 December 2013,
granting the claimants damages of RON 376,433,229 (equivalent to us$116
million) plus interest accruing until full satisfaction of the Award. The
claimants have to date brought at least six sets of enforcement proceedings
against Romania all over the world, none of which have yet reached fruitful
final conclusion. The conflict between the EU legal order and the ICSID regime,
as to the enforcement of awards, has manifested itself in the six different
sets of enforcement proceedings. The aim of this case note is to provide an
overview of the competition law dimension to the ICSID proceedings in the Micula case. The European Commission’s involvement in the Micula case, including its decision prohibiting Romania from
fulfilling the ICSID award and the Commission’s intervention in the ICSID and
subsequent enforcement proceedings is also examined. This case note concludes
with the observation that The CJEU is due to issue a couple of decisions in the
coming months, which could signpost the way for investors to enforce ICSID
awards, when these involve the application of intra-EU BITs.