The Exxon lawsuit was filed by the group’s German and Dutch subsidiaries in Luxembourg. It challenges the council of the region’s legal authority to impose the new tax — a power generally reserved for sovereign countries — and its use of emergency powers to secure member states’ approval.
I’ve not enough law to know whether that’s got any chance of success or not. But if it does it’d not be the first time the EU has gone ultra vires, is it?
ultra vires, from the treaties, would be my guess.
Everything I’ve read suggests Hallowed Be is correct.
No doubt the court will find some whole cloth and say that not only did the EU have the right to do it, but had a duty to do it, in the name of ever closer union.