A new economic and reputational blow to the Spanish state in the United Kingdom due to its resistance to compensating renewable energy companies. A British court has ordered the seizure of €800,000 in four state accounts in the United Kingdom that the Instituto Cervantes held in that country.
The court decision has been adopted by the High Court of Justice of England and Wales and is signed by Justice Richard Harold Davison. It thus agrees with the Blaskett group, which is trying to collect it with State assets in the United Kingdom, when the Government refuses to enforce an award won by this entity to Spain for the downward change in the subsidies planned for investors in renewables.
The decision to alter the aid framework was taken by the previous government of Mariano Rajoy to contain the tariff deficit inherited from the precedent of Zapatero and the current government of Pedro Sánchez is reluctant to pay for the lost lawsuits alleging protection from the European Union.
This court decision, which has already been notified to the State Attorney's Office, joins other partial victories by Blaskett, who has an ongoing seizure process of the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in the United Kingdom and another office of the Generalitat of Catalonia that the judge also considers to be the property of the Kingdom of Spain. These processes have so far not affected the activity of both Spanish institutions, but this seizure of accounts could damage their liquidity.
The accumulated balance in the four accounts that has been seized by the British justice system amounts to €805,808 euros (£699,057.49 sterling), according to Blaskett's lawyers.
This process is linked to the Infrared case, which defeated Spain in a process channeled to the ICSID, the World Bank's arbitration tribunal. The litigation began in 2014 and came to an end in August 2019, when an award was published and confirmed in March 2021.
The complaint claimed compensation of €75.7 million, which was reduced to €28.2 million once the final judgment was announced. Blaskett is trying to collect through seizures in the UK.