Export Slovakia Banned from Using Seized EuroGas Docs in ICSID Arbitration Date: 23.02.2015 12:42 Author: KVAS Urgency: 4 Category: EN: Crime and justice - cri Slovakia Banned from Using Seized EuroGas Docs in ICSID Arbitration
Bratislava, February 23 (TASR) - In the arbitration dispute with EuroGas involving the removal of the firm's talc excavation licence Slovakia won't be able to use information from documents concerning EuroGas's subsidiary Rozmin, according to a document drafted by the International Centre for the Settlement of Industrial Disputes (ICSID) that TASR has at its disposal. The documents in question involve nearly 16,000 pages of paperwork, computers and software containing sensitive information that had been seized by the police. "I can confirm that the ICSID informed us that Slovakia isn't permitted to use the information acquired from the documents belonging to Rozmin seized during a police operation," chair of the EuroGas board of directors Wolfgang Rauball told TASR. Meanwhile, the respective criminal prosecution overseen by the Special Prosecutor's Office based on a motion filed by Peter Corej, during which the documents in question were seized, was dropped in early September 2014. According to information obtained by TASR, the ruling indicated that obstacles that would hamper any further steps in the case until matters of a preliminary nature have been resolved had been dealt with within the criminal proceedings. The aforementioned matters are supposed to go beyond the scope of the criminal proceedings. For example, they include ongoing legal disputes that are set to assess the legitimacy of the steps taken by Spisska Nova Ves District Mining Office in 2005. It was based on this decision that EuroGas lost its talc excavation licence for a quarry in Gemerska Poloma (Kosice region). The verdict was also the cause of international arbitration at the ICSID in which EuroGas as a petitioner is demanding from the state of Slovakia compensation of $3.2 billion (€2.8 billion) for what it calls a marred investment. The first session of the arbitration tribunal in Washington is scheduled for the first half of March. The tribunal will decide on the matter as soon as it has familiarised itself with all relevant documents and statements. The verdict handed down by the ICSID can't be appealed against or overruled by any court in the world. EuroGas began indicating its plans to take legal action over the loss of the talc quarry against Slovakia back in 2010. Initially, it demanded compensation of €500 million in 2011. One year later a company called EuroGas Inc., registered in the USA, also began claiming compensation, with the total sum rising to $1.65 billion. EuroGas asserted that its rights related to a trade agreement between the erstwhile Czechoslovakia and the USA from 1991 had been violated. The Slovak Finance Ministry has denied that any such agreement had been broken. The talc deposit in Gemerska Poloma was discovered accidentally during a search for tin in 1985. The talc from the deposit has high levels of purity, with experts viewing it as one of the most important in the world. |