Until now, Spain has been in second place, after Venezuela and ahead of Russia. However, the accumulation of arbitration awards lost and unpaid by the Spanish state means that, at the moment, Spain has 55 awards against it with total compensation of €1.2 billion. Russia continues to occupy third place.
To this figure must be added another €119 million in interest on the principal and €129 million for the legal costs of the arbitration centres, such as the World Bank’s Ciadi.
This was announced by Nikos Lavranos, an international legal expert and co-author of the European Investment Law and Arbitration Review, which compiles the ranking of countries with the most unpaid awards. Lavranos explained at an international conference on investment and legal security in renewable energy that “sooner or later Spain will have to pay. The later it is, the more expensive it will be for taxpayers”.
The British and Australian courts have confirmed the condemnatory awards against Spain, ensuring their obligatory compliance. These rulings have opened the door to possible seizures of Spanish assets in the UK and Australia. As this newspaper has already reported, Blasket Renewable Investments LL has requested the seizure of the Instituto Cervantes in London, of its accounts in the Santander bank, and of the headquarters of the Agencia per a la Competitivitat de L’Empresa, the commercial ’embassy’ of the Generalitat de Catalunya. And in Australia, some of Navantia’s headquarters or commercial offices could be seized.
Likewise, the Infraestructura Servicios Luxembourg and Energía Termsolar (formerly Antin, which built the Andasol plant in the province of Granada in 2008) companies have also asked the High Court in London about the possibility of deducting the €120 million of compensation from the €925 million that the Spanish state must collect for the Prestige disaster.
