Chisinau airport returns to state ownership - Sergiu Litvinenco.
Justice Minister announced this, noting that this is provided for by the decision of the Chisinau Court of Appeals issued today on the termination of the Chisinau airport concession agreement. "Final and binding. I congratulate the people of Moldova. It is his merit!" stressed the head of the Ministry of Justice. Let us remind that the company Avia Invest obtained in August 2013 a concession of Chisinau airport for 49 years. During 7 years the company changed its owners several times, the last of which was Komaksavia Airport Invest Ltd. In 2020 the Moldovan authorities decided to terminate the airport concession contract because of the concessionaire's failure to perform its contractual obligations, in particular investments in the first and second stages. In addition, the company failed to provide a guarantee for proper fulfillment of its investment obligations in the amount of 1 million Euros. But Komaksavia Airport Invest Ltd went to court, and subsequently the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal banned the termination of the Chisinau airport concession contract until the final decision on the lawsuit against Moldova and banned any execution of the notice of termination of concession sent to Avia Invest. Subsequently, the head of the Ministry of Justice, Sergiu Litvinenco, said that on August 3 this year the Arbitration Court of the Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm (Sweden) has rejected the claim of Komaksavia Airport Invest against Moldova. The court ruled that the company should pay to the Moldovan government 216,67 thousand euros as compensation for the expenses incurred during the arbitration procedure. The minister recalled that Komaksavia had applied to the Court on May 15, 2020. Komaksavia has requested the Arbitration Court to oblige Moldova to continue executing the concession agreement on the assets managed by the state enterprise Chisinau International Airport and the adjacent territories. As an alternative, Komaksavia demanded that the government pay compensation of 883.7 million euros to the company for expropriation of the alleged investments under the concession agreement. According to Sergiu Litvinenco, the court rejected these requests of Komaksavia and ruled that the company had not invested in the assets of the Chisinau airport. While commenting on the Stockholm Arbitration Court's decision and the press release of the Moldovan Ministry of Justice, Komaksavia Airport Invest Ltd (Cyprus) said that the procedural decision to withdraw the claim is an interim one and will be appealed in a higher court in Sweden. It was noted that there are no "findings" or "rulings" that the company has not proved its case against Moldova, simply because it has not yet come to trial. "In this arbitration or in another, but it will be considered sooner or later. We emphasize that the Stockholm Arbitration has not considered the essence of the dispute, but only procedural questions of admissibility of the claim under the convention on mutual protection of investments between Moldova and Cyprus," reads the statement of Komaksavia Airport Invest Ltd. As for the alleged lack of investment, Komaksavia Airport Invest pointed out that no such findings were made by the tribunal and the tribunal merely concluded that the investments made did not meet the specific criteria of the Convention between Moldova and Cyprus on the Protection of Investments, and nothing more. And on that basis, the arbitration terminated the dispute, rather than declaring a win for Moldova. Komaksavia Airport Invest Ltd stated that the position of the Moldovan Ministry of Justice expressed in its press release on the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration Court was a manipulation of public opinion. "The state's strategy of defending 'according to the procedure of the case' and not 'according to the essence of the case' is just a break in the dispute, but not the end of it. There is no question of terminating the concession agreement. Since Moldova has decided not to bring the case to a full trial in the Stockholm Arbitration, and withdraw the claim "according to procedure," Komaksavia Airport Invest will continue its defense in other international tribunals. If the tribunal considered that the investments made in 2014-2020 did not fall under the terms of one of the existing conventions in the world, it does not mean that the investment did not take place in the form in which the contract provides. Every passenger sees everything with his/her own eyes. And let us remind you at least that the investment is confirmed by the protocol of the State Commission for Concession Monitoring, which has full legal force so far. Komaksavia Airport Invest qualifies this decision as groundless and politically motivated," the company said. For its part, the management of the Public Property Agency said recently that the state has a great chance to return Chisinau International Airport under its management, because after the Stockholm Court decision, which dismissed the lawsuit filed by Komaksavia against Moldova, there will not be another court that would rule otherwise. "The dispute over the concession agreement for the Chisinau airport property is in the Court of Appeal, which will make the final decision and it will have legal force, and after the court decision, we will be able to get the property back. If the decision is in favor of the State, there is a company called Chisinau International Airport, which works, has employees, a budget and this company will take over the management of the airport", said the former Director General of the Public Property Agency, Eugeniu Cozonac. Regarding Avia Invest's claim that it has invested hundreds of millions in Chisinau airport, he stressed that it has been demonstrated in arbitration that the founder of Komaksavia is not a bona fide investor and moreover the contract was terminated because Avia Invest failed to fulfill its contractual obligations to make investments in the manner prescribed by the contract. //23.11.2022 - InfoMarket.
