RO Govt. looking for solutions to pay EUR 395 mln to Romanian-Swedish investors

Romania’s tax agency ANAF has received the mission to meet the representatives of Romanian-Swedish investors Ioan and Viorel Micula and convince them to accept scheduled payments for the EUR 395 million claim they have on the Romanian state, transport minister Lucian Bode said on Wednesday, November 20.

The Transport Ministry is directly interested in settling this matter after the Miculas, who won EUR 395 million worth of compensations from the Romanian state in international courts, have frozen the international accounts of ROMATSA, the state-owned company in charge with air traffic control.

“We are determined to apply the law. Applying the law means very, very clearly: the ANAF together with the company that represents the Micula brothers to draw up a payment schedule for the debt that the Romanian state has, so that the garnishment on Romatsa’s accounts will be lifted,” Bode told Digi24.ro.

When he took over the mandate, at the beginning of November, Boda said Romatsa’s accounts were frozen by the Miculas. Ioan and Viorel Micula, two Romanian businessmen who also have Swedish citizenship, obtained compensations worth EUR 395 million in international courts because the Romanian state withdrew the fiscal allowances it previously granted to them after Romania joined the European Union in 2007.

The Miculas claimed that the Government’s decision to cut their allowances violated an investment protection protocol between Romania and Sweden.

Their initial claim was EUR 84.5 million while the rest of the sum represents interest and penalties.

The situation remained in limbo because the World Bank’s arbitrage court ICSID court ruled in favour of the Micula brothers while the European Union insisted that paying the money would be considered illegal state aid.

(Photo: Shutterstock)