Inter se Agreements between Member States, and the Outer Limits of the Court’s Jurisdiction in Infringement Proceedings: Slovenia v Croatia

Slovenia v Croatia represents the first case where the Court was asked to directly examine matters related to a border dispute between Member States. Numerous cases have been brought before the Court where legal issues flowing from territorial disputes were subject to judicial scrutiny. A first series of cases concerned the implementation of EU law provisions on the provenance of products originating in contested territories outside the Union (such as the northern part of the island of Cyprus, the territories occupied by the State of Israel and the Western Sahara ). Furthermore, Spanish and British disputes over Gibraltar have been considered by the Court in Spain v United Kingdom, where the particular situation of the individuals residing in Gibraltar and the electoral rights of EU citizens were at stake. In Slovenia v Croatia, however, the Court was requested to assess whether or not the respect of an international law dispute settlement by two Member States concerning their borders could represent an issue of EU law per se. What is more, the case provided the Court with the opportunity to reconsider to what extent EU law may influence the bilateral relations between Member States, and the role the constitutional principle of sincere cooperation may play in this respect.