Summary

As of 2000, the European Court of Justice has produced six decisions in court cases involving gold shares, where the dispute was over the special rights of EU member states in privatised companies. In five cases, the European Court of Justice found a conflict between state law and Article 56 of the Treaty. In the court case Commission vs Belgium (C-503/99), however, the European Court of Justice stated that gold shares per se are not illegal, and in certain cases special state rights do not necessarily violate the Treaty. The European Court of Justice, with this court decision, has opened the door to those member states that do not wish to relinquish their special rights in privatised companies, and to those member states that wish to carry out privatisations of companies based on gold shares.

The aim of the article is to provide an answer to the question as to the effect of EU law on gold shares in Estonia. The author analyses the criteria for legal gold shares formulated by the European Court of Justice. The purpose of the analysis is to assess the conditions in Estonian law under which the special rights of the state in privatised enterprises could be in conflict with EU law, and also to raise the problems in Estonian legal practice associated with gold shares, primarily in the use of legal protection measures in disputing illegal gold shares.