ROME: SLOVENSKÉ Elektrárne (SE) electric power company is claiming more than €588 million as compensation for losing the rental and operation of Gabčíkovo hydroelectric power plant. This latest step is part of a wider dispute between the Slovak government and SE, majority owned by Italian company Enel.
The power company cites the agreement it signed with the National Property Fund (FNM) during the second government of Mikuláš Dzurinda (2004-06), based on which they have the right for compensation for losing 35 percent of revenues from selling the electricity for 30 years in case of termination of the agreement. SE rented the power plant Gabčíkovo and operated it.
We have suffered enormous damage and we will not leave this unsolved, new CEO of Slovenské Elektrárne, Nicola Cotugno, said for Hospodárske noviny.
SE, the biggest producer of electric power in Slovakia, turned to the Economy Ministry and FNM and wanted them to send the money in question by April 16, the Hospodárske noviny economic daily wrote a day later.
It can now submit a motion to start international arbitration. Enel, for its part, wants to sell its 66-percent stake in the SE and has been looking for a buyer for some time already.
The state refused the SE requirement, claiming that when the Bratislava Regional Court in March proclaimed the rental of Gabčíkovo by SE invalid, it thus automatically also annulled the validity of the contract on compensation. SE can now turn to the International Arbitration Court in Vienna, the daily wrote.
