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This article explores the impact of an important ruling in the energy sector from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In its judgment, the CJEU narrowly avoids giving the referring court a green light to interpret a key provision of the EU internal energy market legislation contra legem. Invoking instead the principle of non-discrimination, the CJEU relies on a classic remedy to recognise that a Swedish company owning and operating an electricity interconnector should be entitled to earn a reasonable profit. Although the interconnection of energy networks is an objective enshrined in art.194(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the realisation of this objective has spawned a dense and highly technical web of regulation. This article explains the Court’s reasoning and its potential legal as well as economic impact in this complex and evolving regulatory space. We explain that while valuable progress has been made on technical harmonisation, classic fundamental principles of EU law, such as the non-discrimination principle, remain pivotal for resolving modern and central issues of electricity market integration.
