Construing the ERIC Legal Form from the Perspective of the Swedish Legislator

European Spallation Source ERIC (ESS ERIC) is a legal entity established by the European Commission based on a European Union regulation (the ERIC Regulation). It is co-hosted by Sweden and Denmark and has its statutory seat in Lund, Sweden. This means that, according to the ERIC Regulation, ESS ERIC is a legal subject of both EU law and Swedish national law. In terms of hierarchical interplay between those two legal systems, it follows from the regulation that matters concerning ESS ERIC are, in the first hand, subject to EU law, with Swedish national law applying insofar as EU law does not regulate the matter at hand. The ERIC Regulation proceeds on the basis that national law will complement its rules in constructing a legal framework governing ERICs. However, apart from the odd reference, the ERIC Regulation does not specify the national law applicable to ERICs. This holds true in terms of national law rules that apply to legal persons in general (general laws) as well as national law legislation enacted to regulate specific legal forms for organisational activity, and thus the legal persons that operate within such forms (specific laws). Accordingly, the ERIC Regulation does not connect the ERIC to legal forms for organisation existing under member states’ national law and specific laws governing existing legal forms.

This raises the general question of what kind of legal entities ERICs are under the legal systems of EU member states. More precisely, the question arises of how the ERIC — as a legal form for entities established by the EU to operate as legal subjects of national law—should be construed when analysing the potential applicability of Swedish national law rules to matters concerning ERICs operating within the Swedish legal jurisdiction. This chapter explores these questions from the perspective of ESS ERIC and Swedish legal forms for organisations. A comprehensive identification and assessment of legal rules that are, or might be, applicable to ESS ERIC under Swedish law lies outside the limited scope of this chapter. Instead, the chapter’s approach is to identify, explain and discuss the Swedish national legislative measures hitherto undertaken with respect to the ERIC legal form and ESS ERIC. The chapter discusses issues concerning the construction of ERICs as legal entities under Swedish law by explaining their emergence in the Swedish legal system through EU law and shedding a light on how the Swedish legislator views the ERIC, as a legal form for organisation, in comparison to legal forms for organisations, recognised under Swedish law, including associations.