ICSID arbitration terminates Belgian SREW's proceedings against Ukraine

MOSCOW. Aug 6 (Interfax) - The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has terminated the proceedings following a lawsuit filed by Belgium's SREW N.V., which owns 75% of Dnipro-Bug Wind Farm LLC, against the state of Ukraine.

According to the procedural details published on ICSID's website, the proceedings initiated in October 2021 resulted in establishing the tribunal in January 2022, but the proceedings were later extended several times by agreement of the parties, Ukrainian media reported.

In April 2024, the proceedings were suspended due to non-payment of the required advances, and the ICSID secretary general signed an order terminating the SREW v. Ukraine case in July.

As reported, the arbitration proceedings were based on a breach of the agreement between the Ukrainian government and the Belgian-Luxembourg Economic Union (BIT Belgium-Luxembourg - Ukraine 1996) on mutual promotion and protection of investment.

The plaintiff considered the steps taken by the state of Ukraine, in particular, the adoption of the law dated July 21, 2019, which changed the conditions for developing the renewable energy market, to be unlawful and unjustified.

Earlier, in July 2019, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) decided to partially fund the construction of the Dnipro-Bug Wind Farm with a designed capacity of 110 MW (25x4.4 MW).

The beneficiary of the project funding was to be a specially established company, Dnipro-Bug Wind Farm LLC, which is owned by Akuo Energy SAS (France), Saffelberg Investment NV and Aeolus Invest NV (both Belgium). The Dnipro-Bug Wind Farm was to deal with the project from development to post-launch management. Its total cost was estimated at 188.64 million euros.

The status of the construction financing project at the time of filing the lawsuit was listed as "canceled" on the EBRD's website.