Wrong way to direct effect?: Case note on the Advisory Opinion of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union delivered on 4 April 2017 at the request of the Republic of Belarus

Abstract:

In an advisory opinion delivered in April 2017, the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union held that direct effect may result from the provisions of the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union governing competition. The Court’s reasoning was based on the fact that under this Treaty, competition is a common policy that envisages the application of unified legal regulations by the Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The case note aims at underlining how this kind of approach differs from the general trend in the field, especially considering the European Court of Justice’s holding in Van Gend en Loos. Additionally, some thoughts are devoted to the nature of the Eurasian Economic Union, in order to understand whether it could be considered a supranational organization.