Romanian state loses trial against Swedish investors

Swedish-Romanian investors Viorel Micula and Ioan Micula have won the final 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, said Ioan Micula, cited by local Mediafax. The decision is final, and the state can’t appeal against it, he added. 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. The arbitration tribunal in Washington ICSID ruled that the state’s decision violated the bilateral investment treaty between Romania and Sweden and ordered Romania to pay EUR 82 million worth of damages to the Miculas plus interest which increased the total amount to EUR 178 million. The European Commission, however, said that there were no legal grounds that Romania should pay any damages to the Miculas, as the state aid scheme was later deemed illegal. editor@romania-insider.com