adopted between the EFSM and the Member States seeking assistance.XIX Although Article
13 (2) TUE states that EU institutions ‘shall act within the limits of the powers conferred on it in the
Treaties, and in conformity with the procedures, conditions and objectives set out in them’, in Pringle the
Court of Justice clarified that Member States are ‘entitled, in areas which do not fall under the
exclusive competence of the Union, to entrust tasks to the institutions, outside the framework of the Union’;
these are similar to those given to the Commission and the ECB in the EFSF.XX However,
as the Luxembourg court declared in Pringle and restated in Ledra, the tasks conferred on
the Commission and the ECB by international treaties that solely bind the Member States
‘do not alter the essential character of the powers conferred on those institutions by the EU and FEU
Treaties.’XXI
Another example of the public law nature of the framework-agreement is the
submission to the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of disputes between the Member
States and to the jurisdiction of Luxembourg common courts of disputes between the
EFSF and Member States [Article 16 (2)].XXII The adoption of a dual system implies that
the legal relationships established between Member States are inherently different (and
have a public legal nature) from the ones that involve the Member States and the EFSF
(which have a private legal nature). In this regard, it is also not clear whether the Treaties
authorize the transformation of the Court of Justice into an arbitration forum for the
resolution of disputes emerging from a contract subjected to English law. Article 273
TFEU states that ‘the Court of Justice shall have jurisdiction in any dispute between Member States
which relates to the subject matter of the Treaties if the dispute is submitted to it under a special agreement
between the parties’. This provision aims at protecting the uniformity of EU law, which could
be at risk by decisions of judicial bodies in matters connected with the Treaties. Article 273
TFUE was introduced in the Rome Treaty to solve disputes emerging from international
treaties adopted between Member States using their ius tractuum (Piçarra 2013: 51). Its
wording does not exclude the argument that the ‘special agreement’ (Article 273 TFEU)
between Member States could be a provision included in a contract established between
Member States and a private company, particularly in a case were the jurisdiction of the
Court of Justice concerns disputes that only involve Member States in matters that are
clearly related to the subject-matter of the Treaties.XXIII
The EFSF was established by sovereign States to rescue other sovereign States with the
assistance of EU institutions. It is inherently a public international law legal instrument that
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