PL Holdings (Investment Treaty of 1987 between Poland, Luxembourg and Belgium� – Provision enabling an investor from one contracting party to bring proceedings - Opinion)

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Högsta domstol (Supreme Court, Sweden))

(Request for a preliminary ruling – Investment Treaty of 1987 between Poland, Luxembourg and Belgium – Provision enabling an investor from one contracting party to bring proceedings before an arbitration tribunal in the event of a dispute with the other contracting party – Inapplicability of that arbitration clause – Arbitration agreement – Entering of an appearance without raising an objection – Applicability – Compatibility with Articles 267 and 344 TFEU – Autonomy of EU law)

The request for a preliminary ruling sets out the relevant provisions of the lagen (1999:116) om skiljeförfarande (Law No 116 of 1999 on arbitration proceedings; ‘the Law on arbitration proceedings’) as follows.

Under Paragraph 1 of the Law on arbitration proceedings, disputes which the parties may be able to settle may be submitted by agreement to the decision of one or more arbitrators.

Arbitration proceedings are to be based on the arbitration agreement. The latter is based on the parties’ entitlement to reach a settlement concerning the subject matter of the dispute. Paragraph 1 of the Law on arbitration proceedings provides that disputes in which public interest is more marked are to be excluded from arbitration. It may also follow from specific legislative provisions that a dispute on a particular issue may not be submitted to arbitration.