United Kingdom v Council of the EU

In United Kingdom v Council of the EU (C-209/13) the CJEU dismissed the UK’s action against the decision of the European Council authorising 11 member states to establish enhanced cooperation between themselves in order to set up a common financial transaction tax (FTT).

The decision of the Council was reached after it became obvious that it would not be possible to achieve unanimous support for the principle of a common system of FTT.

The UK contended that the decision would produce extraterritorial effects (in breach of TFEU art 327) and that it would impose costs on non-participating member states (in breach of TFEU art 332).

The court found that the Council’s decision was limited to authorising the establishment of enhanced cooperation. As such it did not contain any substantive element on the FTT; nor did it contain any provision on the...