Prime Minister finds Gabčíkovo contract invalid

Prime Minister Robert Fico announced on Thursday that the Slovenské elektrárne energy utility cannot lay claim to any financial compensation for the premature annulment of the contract for operating the Gabčíkovo power plant. He spoke in reaction to the results of arbitration proceedings at the Vienna International Arbitral Centre, concluded on June 30 between SE on one side and the Economy Ministry along with HM Manažment - a successor organisation to the National Property Fund - on the other. As Robert Fico said, the contract for operating the Gabčíkovo Hydroelectric Power Plant has been invalid since the very beginning. "The arbitration court in Vienna ... declared that it is within its power to make a decision on the matter, it also definitively turned down the whole proposal by Enel [the Italian owner of SE]," said Fico. SE demanded compensation of €588.2 million for the premature annulment of the contract for operating the Gabčíkovo power plant. The energy producer arrived at the sum after taking into account the value of technology and Gabčíkovo assets handed over to the state-owned company Vodohospodárska Výstavba as well as revenues, expenditures-excluded, for operating the power plant for over 22 years. The Italian owner of Slovenské elektrárne rented the company from the state for a period of 30 years back in 2006. In 2015, the second government of Robert Fico annulled the contract.