The foreign funds want to forfeit part of Prestige’s $925 million compensation for defaulting in Spain
Important foreign investors can recover the compensation of one million dollars recognized by various international arbitrations after the massive reductions in renewable energy sources that occurred in our country through the compensation that the Spanish state has to collect for the Prestige disaster.
It must be emphasized that only foreign investors in Spanish factories can resort to international arbitration, since National investors can only go to the Supreme Courtwhich ratified the new regulations of 2012.
Specifically, this newspaper confirmed several cases, among them the case of Infrastructure Services of Luxembourg and Energía Termosolar, whose representatives asked the High Court in London to deduct from 925 million euros in compensation From London Steam-Ship Owners Mutal Insance – the insurer of Prestige – that the Spanish state has a pending payment for 120 million that our country has not yet paid to them. The hearing will take place in the last week of this month.
These investors from Luxembourg and Germany sued Spain in November 2013 because the new regulation approved by Mariano Rajoy’s government meant a very significant drop in expected income. They were not the only ones, and to date, 51 arbitration cases have been filed in various international organizations, in particular before ICSID (International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes), which is an institution of the World Bank. The amount of compensation required amounts to 10,000 million.
In June 2018, This court condemned Spain To change the regulatory system, which means that “the insurance premiums expected under Royal Decree 661/2007 significantly exceeded the special payments provided for in the new system (Law 15/2012)” that affected Andasol factories located in Granada and owned by these investors. The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes also rejected the request of the country’s legal representatives not to have jurisdiction over the case.
And the sources of these investors confirm that “Spain’s refusal to pay this debt is a breach of its international treaty obligations under the Energy Charter Treaty, the ICSID Convention and the Vienna Convention.”
No award has been paid
Specifically, the Spanish government’s decision not to pay compensation governed by arbitrations is one of the reasons why our country no longer belongs to the Energy Charter Treaty.
From the Ministry of Environmental Transition they indicated that of the 51 arbitrations submitted, 28 were awarded, two were overturned, another 20 were pending, and three plaintiffs were withdrawn.
They stressed that “the damages have greatly reduced the compensation claimed, to the point of being 12% on required, A very low percentage in the usual practice of arbitration, which, moreover, follows a downward trend: the new awards give less and less compensation.
They add that “in cases where the plaintiffs’ claims were partially accepted, Spain lodged an appeal for annulment. None of the awards have been implemented».
They confirmed from the Teresa Ribera Department that “In addition, Payments may be in violation of EU law It constitutes illegal assistance to the state. Thus, when Spain receives an award recognizing compensation, it notifies Brussels, in accordance with the decision of the European Commission to approve the assistance scheme to support electricity generation from renewable energy sources and cogeneration. Spain cannot pay before the Commission announces this, so it is acting faithfully to its legal obligations.
