Slovenians Demand 90 Million from RS, Monthly Interest for Non-Payment Half a Million

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Legal representatives of the Slovenian company "Vijadukt", which recently won a final court ruling of 90 million KM against Republika Srpska, have officially demanded that RS pay this debt. Every month of delay will cost RS an additional half a million KM.

The Deputy Prosecutor of BiH, Mlađen Mandić, confirmed that the Slovenians have requested the enforcement of the verdict.

"They have submitted a request for voluntary enforcement of the verdict; if it is not voluntary, they will block the account of Republika Srpska. The Prosecutor's Office of BiH has nothing to do with this as we did not participate in that procedure," Mandić told Capital.ba.

As learned, the legal representatives of "Vijadukt" requested that the money be paid into the fund's account, which paid the arbitration costs instead of the Slovenian company.

However, Republika Srpska requested that "Vijadukt" provide consent for the money to be paid into that account.

We remind you that Republika Srpska lost 90 million KM in a dispute before the arbitration court in Washington, following a lawsuit by the Slovenian company "Vijadukt", due to the unilateral termination of the concession agreement for the construction of hydropower plants on the Vrbas river.

The arbitration proceedings were initiated after "HES Vrbas", which was supposed to build the hydropower plants on the Vrbas, submitted a compensation claim of 46 million KM to the Government of RS in October 2015 due to the termination of the contract. As they did not reach an agreement, the majority owner of HES, the Slovenian "Vijadukt", initiated a request for arbitration with BiH in Washington.

The concession award agreement worth 165 million euros was signed by the Government of RS with "HES Vrbas" in 2004, and it planned the construction of the HE "Krupa" and HE "Banjaluka-Niska" hydropower plants.

However, a year later, around 20,000 citizens of Banja Luka signed a petition against this project, and given that the project was not realized for ten years, the contract was terminated in September 2015.

Before initiating arbitration, the Slovenians offered a settlement of a few million euros, but the Government of RS rejected it, believing that justice was on their side.

As no agreement was reached, "Vijadukt" initiated proceedings in 2016 and sought compensation of around 100 million marks.

A year later, the Government of Republika Srpska signed an agreement with the Council of Ministers of BiH, obliging itself to pay all costs of the arbitration proceedings.

Republika Srpska was represented in this dispute by the law firm "Karanović i Nikolić", and "Vijadukt" by the law firm "Baroš" from Banja Luka.