Miljenko Giunio: The Request for Annulment of the Arbitral Award in the Ina-MOL Case Remains Open

Member of the arbitration tribunal of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, Miljenko Giunio, stated on Tuesday for Hina that the request for annulment of the arbitral award in the Ina-MOL case remains open, and that the decision of the Swiss Federal Court from April 12 pertains to the postponement of the enforcement of the arbitral award regarding material costs.

The Croatian request for postponement of the enforcement of the arbitral award in Geneva regarding material costs has been rejected, as interpreted by Giunio. “I interpret this as a decision only regarding the non-approval of the suspension of the enforcement of payment of costs,” said Giunio, adding that, in his view, the request for annulment remains open.

At the beginning of the year, Croatia requested the annulment of the arbitral award in the Ina-MOL case, issued on December 23 of last year by the Arbitration Tribunal established under the Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in Geneva between the Republic of Croatia and the MOL Group.

“Croatia, through its legal representatives and Swiss lawyers we engaged, requested the annulment of the arbitration,” said Prime Minister Andrej Plenković in early February, responding to a journalist’s question about whether Croatia had requested the annulment of the mentioned arbitration.

>>>Strong Refineries, Liquidity, and Marketing: Moody’s Upgrades MOL’s Credit Rating

The Prime Minister then assessed that there are “very well-supported arguments for the annulment of the arbitration, primarily procedural legal reasons, and we hope that, in the proceeding that follows and will last several months, the Swiss Federal Court will appropriately consider those several stated reasons.”

When asked by journalists what those procedural reasons are, Plenković mentioned that they relate to “certain aspects concerning the composition of the court, the right to a hearing, and some details that are not currently relevant to the public.”

Hungarian MOL published parts of the UNCITRAL arbitration ruling on January 12 of this year, noting that it “did so in accordance with the rules of the Hungarian capital market and the legal notices of the Hungarian central bank, as the regulator.” Among other things, MOL stated at that time that the Court in Geneva ruled that “all claims of the Republic of Croatia based on bribery, management of Ina, and MOL’s alleged violations of the 2003 Shareholders’ Agreement are rejected.”

The arbitration proceedings between the Republic of Croatia and the MOL Group before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington are still ongoing, initiated by the Hungarian company.