CJEU re EU's exclusive competences re Singaporean free trade agreement

On 16May2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union has confirmed that the European Union has exclusive competence in the matter of its free trade agreement with Singapore, except for the two topics of non-direct foreign investment and investor state dispute settlement.

http://www.cms-lawnow.com/ealerts/2017/05/brexit-a-question-of-competence?cc_lang=en&ec_as=D273C032D4E0488096CA86E5A63ADBBF

The article maps out why the Canadian free trade deal with the EU went to member nations for ratification.  The article opines that the judgement enables a free trade agreement between UK and EU, or at least a slightly easier strategy thereof.   But the article recognises that trade deals are seldom only legal; politics gets in the way, so overall, this judgement might end up being a technicality with no useful, political purpose.

However, that the investor state dispute settlement procedure (ISDSP) is held to be outside the competence of the European Union is an interesting decision by the Court.  If I recall correctly, ISDSP was a cause célèbre for the European Parliament in the matter of TTIP, because Europe’s left-wing resented the prospect of governments being held to account for any vandalism they performed on private persons’ economic interests.  Europe’s left-wing recognised that ISDSP would impede protectionism and nationalisations.

That the ISDSP is said to have been a standard clause in many free trade agreements already signed  appears not to have made a difference.  Hence why I refer to it as a cause célèbre.