The Swiss Federal Court has confirmed an award against Spain that condemns it to pay 29.6 million euros to the French energy company EDF as compensation for the retroactive withdrawal of renewable premiums.
The Swiss justice system has announced its decision a year after Spain appealed against an arbitration award, the result of a process that took place in that country. In it, EDF claimed Spain 52.8 million euros as compensation for the legal change that reduced premiums for investments in renewable energy made by the company during the mandate of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and that were modified with Mariano Rajoy at the helm. of the Government of Spain. The final ruling of the reduced arbitration is compensation for a payment obligation of 29.6 million that Spain has not yet disbursed.
According to the information known today, the Swiss judges refer in their sentence to article 26 of the Energy Charter Treaty and consider that it is clear regarding the validity that the signatory countries of the agreement grant to the possible arbitrations that could arise the long of the time. They consider that "Spain's reasoning is not convincing" and add that the judicial argument of the State Attorney's Office "is based almost entirely on the requirement to preserve the specific character of community law that does not take into account even the slightest international law and the rules of interpretation of treaties.
Along the same lines, the Swiss justice system believes that, since the arbitration was held in Switzerland, it is not possible to appeal to a European ruling whose scope is limited to the internal borders of the EU.
This sentence from an international court is known just 12 days after the one issued by the German justice system and adds to the string of sentences that Spain is accumulating due to international disputes in relation to renewable energy premiums that have caused the country to accumulate 26 sentences. for nearly 1,800 million euros in pending obligations, a figure to which must be added 250 million in late payment interest, costs orders, hiring of law firms and consultants, etc.
Last August, a British judge already agreed to seize several assets of the Spanish State in its territory as a measure for the plaintiff companies to collect the compensation that Spain refuses to pay. Now, it would be the United States that could be studying a similar action since the legal teams of the energy companies are tracking possible assets that can be seized in that country due to the insistence of the Spanish legal profession to refuse to accept the results of the international awards issued in these conflicts.
