The District Court of The Hague has ordered the seizure of the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in Utrecht (Holland), after having authorized on March 19 the execution in that country of the arbitration awards due to the change in 2013 of the renewable energy remuneration regulations.
The property, valued at around 10 million euros and registered in the name of the Spanish Emigration Institute, will be sold in the presence of a notary, according to the letter from the lawyers in charge of registering the seizure, to which EFE has had access and dated April 24.
The litigation is due to the consequences of the change in the Spanish regulations for the remuneration of renewables decreed in 2013, during the Government of Mariano Rajoy (2011-2018), which meant a cut to the remuneration that these facilities received during their useful life. This led to a wave of investor arbitration requests before different international organizations, the main one being the ICSID, dependent on the World Bank.
Spain will oppose and litigate
Sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge have indicated that, without prejudice to the action that the Dutch Ministry of Justice may undertake in relation to the preventive seizure of the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute, Spain will oppose and litigate, defending the country’s national interests, as usually happens.
Foreign investors in renewable energy denounced Spain in international arbitration courts for the regulatory reform of the previous PP Government in 2013, adds the same source.
In total, they claimed a total of 10,635 million euros, but Spain has already managed to reduce that amount by 85% and continues to litigate in different national and international instances, they explain from Ecological Transition.
The document from the Dutch lawyers indicates that Spain was formally informed on April 20 without payment of compensation being made, hence the preventive seizure of the property was authorized. The awarded award corresponds to the claim of the Blasket Renewable Investment fund, in a procedure that derives from the case of Eurus Energy, a subsidiary of the Japanese group Toyota.
The property, located in the historic center of Utrecht, has a market value of close to 10 million euros.
Sources close to the creditor funds highlight that the building does not constitute an essential organ for Spanish diplomatic action, as it is a cultural entity that also hosts events and conferences, so that a possible appeal alleging sovereign immunity will have little impact.
In the United States, seven of the creditor companies have defeated Spain, in such a way that the North American courts have recognized a debt of 688 million euros and have authorized discovery procedures for assets of the Spanish State that affect, for example, the operations of the Spanish team in the 2026 World Cup, indicates the same source.
In total, Spain owes 2,309 million euros to companies that suffered the retroactive withdrawal of renewable premiums and have been suffering from continuous non-payment of these sentences.
