The European Court of Justice has rejected with the sentence filed on April 16th, 2013 in the cases C 274/11 and C 295/11 the appeal filed by Italy and Spain regarding the annulment of the decision of the European Union Council 2011/167/EU of March 10, 2011, confirming the legality of the procedure of enhanced cooperation. The decision of the Council to authorize the enhanced cooperation is not - in the opinion of the Court - a circumvention of the requirement of unanimity nor the exclusion of the Member States that have not endorsed the enhanced cooperation requests, but it contributes to the process of European integration, assessing "the impossibility for the Member States to achieve a common system for the Union within a reasonable time".