site.btaBSP-Left Bulgaria Wants President to Return Cemeko Case Ratification Act for Further Debate

BSP-Left Bulgaria Wants President to Return Cemeko Case Ratification Act for Further Debate


Sofia, December 18 (BTA) - Mihail Mikov, Floor Leader of
BSP-Left Bulgaria and Chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party,
said in Parliament on Thursday that the President should return
for further debate an act ratifying an agreement between
Bulgaria's Ministry of Economy and Germany's Federal Ministry of
Economics and Energy on settlement by mutual consent of the
damages in the case of Cemeko OOD.

After a heated debate on Wednesday, Parliament ratified the
agreement between the two ministries on the claim in the case of
Cemeko OOD, Sofia, and an agreement between Bulgaria's Ministry
of Economy and Kloesters Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH of
Kempen, Germany.

Under the agreement between the two ministries, Bulgaria
undertakes to pay Germany 2,093,352 euro - half of the amount
claimed over a breach of the bilateral Investment Protection
Treaty - within seven days after the agreement enters into
force. Under the agreement with Kloesters, the German company
renounces the laying of additional claims for compensation
against Bulgaria in the Cemeko case.

Mikov said: "We insist that the President should not become
party to this damaging of Bulgaria's interests." He said that
this was a deal between the governments of Bulgaria and Germany
in favour of a private company, without any legal grounds
whatsoever, a deal which causes a detriment of 4 million leva to
Bulgarian taxpayers and by no means promotes the prestige of
foreign investors in Bulgaria.

Mikov said that while Germany defends German business by all
means, nothing can excuse the servility of the Bulgarian
government and Parliament. The four-party coalition subordinated
the rule of law to a foreign private business interest, he
added.

According to Mikov, the Cemeko case will be a litmus for the
Bulgarian institutions' ability to stand up for the law and the
national interest, not the interests of foreign companies.