Finance Ministry: Romania has paid debt to Romanian-Swedish investors

Romania’s Finance Ministry has paid the debt to the Romanian-Swedish investors Ioan Micula and Viorel Micula. However, the Ministry still needs to recover from them and some of their companies about RON 380 million (EUR 85 million) at the request of the European Commission. The Finance Ministry has taken note of the ICSID decision in the Micula case, according to Finance Ministry representatives. “From a legal perspective, the decision does not change the steps taken by the Romanian state so far.” The two investors have won the trial against the Romanian state at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) within the World Bank. They should receive damages of over EUR 200 million, according to Ioan Micula. The two investors filed against the Romanian state in international courts, after the Government revoked a state aid scheme in 2005, which allowed the Miculas’ companies to pay no taxes on raw material imports and granted them other fiscal breaks. editor@romania-insider.com