The Romanian state won at the international arbitral tribunal in Washington where Alpiq’s action against Romania was definitively rejected, the stake being 450 million dollars, the Ministry of Energy announced on Wednesday, write Agerpres.
„On August 11, 2023, an ad hoc committee appointed in accordance with the rules of the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington (ICSID) issued the decision rejecting the action for annulment filed by Alpiq AG Switzerland (Alpiq) against the Romanian State, represented in the process by the Ministry of Energy. With this solution, the decision of November 9, 2018 was upheld, by which Alpiq’s claims were rejected in their entirety, considering Alpiq’s request to receive compensation worth about 450 million dollars unfounded for the termination of the energy sales-purchase contracts of the traders with SPEEH Hidroelectrica,” the press release says. The decision issued by the ad hoc committee, made up of three arbitrators, obliges Alpiq to pay the court costs and marks the definitive settlement of the arbitration dispute in favor of the Romanian State.
„We welcome the final decision of the international arbitral tribunal in Washington, ICSID, which brings Romania a well-deserved victory more than eight years after the start of the arbitration procedure. The Romanian state behaved correctly and respected its obligations without violating the rights of the Alpiq investor, and the solution pronounced in Washington certifies this fact. We would like to thank the teams of lawyers from Zamfirescu Racoti Vasile & Partners and Tanasescu Gavrila & Asociatii for the legal support provided during this complex arbitration process,” said the Energy minister Sebastian Burduja.
The Ministry reminds that, through the arbitration action Alpiq AG v. Romania (ARB/14/28) promoted before the ICSID arbitral tribunal and initiated on November 17, 2014, the parent company of the energy traders Alpiq requested that Romania be obliged to pay over 450 of millions of dollars in damages, claiming violations of its rights related to the opening of the insolvency procedure of SPEEH Hidroelectrica SA and the termination of the energy sales-purchase contracts concluded by Alpiq traders with SPEEH Hidroelectrica SA.
Alpiq had stated that Romania disregarded its rights guaranteed by the bilateral investment treaty between Romania and Switzerland (BIT, 1993) and the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT, 1994), citing, among others, reasons such as the expropriation of the investment and the violation of the state’s obligation to grant fair and equitable treatment.
