ContourGlobal International Arbitration suit against Kosovo over power plant

English

Gazeta Express

01/12/2020 14:58

Kosovo’s Ministry of Economy and Environment has announced Tuesday that the US power generation company ContourGlobal has submitted a Notice of Arbitration against the Republic of Kosovo citing failure of Kosovo authorities to financially close the project on New Kosova power plant.

“On 24.05.2020 has expired the deadline to make the Financial Conclusion of the Power Plant New Kosova project. This was not achieved in time and after attempting several times to solve the dispute through an agreement, the request for arbitration has been summitted with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes by the investor CountourGlobal,” the Ministry of Economy and environment said in a press release.

In March 2020, the US company ContourGlobal announced its decision to cancel the 500 MW New Kosova coal-fired power plant project, which was estimated to cost €1.3bn. The deal with ContourGlobal, was signed in 2017 at the time the government was led by ex-prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, who resigned in July 2019 to appear at the Hague-based court investigating war crimes committed during Kosovo’s war of independence. Kosovo’s new government led by Albin Kurti established in February pledged to stop the ContourGlobal project in Kosovo.

“As a result of the political situation in Kosovo since July, our development project is incapable of reaching its required milestones by the required project completion date in May 2020 so the project cannot proceed,” ContourGlobal said in a statement issued back in march, adding that it will not invest in the coal project anymore. /GazetaExpress/