SKOPJE (Macedonia), September 4 (SeeNews) – The Skopje Appeals Court said it has overturned a lower-court ruling against the Macedonian power distribution unit of Austria's EVN in its dispute with the Balkan country's state-owned power producer over 6.0 billion denars ($139 million/98 million euro) in unpaid electricity bills.
The ruling handed down by the Skopje Primary Court on April 21 is hereby overruled and the case is sent back for re-examination, the Appeals Court said in the ruling posted on its website.
Earlier this year, the first-instance court ruled that EVN Macedonia AD (formerly EVN Elektrostopanstvo na Makedonija AD) should pay some 100 million euro to Elektrani na Makedonija (ELEM) AD, granting ELEM's demand for the payment for electricity supply for the period preceding the power distributor’s privatisation.
“We are waiting to receive the ruling and then our legal team will examine it carefully,” ELEM spokesman Mirce Kotevski told SeeNews on Friday.
The Macedonian government said in a statement posted on its website on Friday that it has not yet received the court ruling in the EVN/ELEM dispute.
Officials from the Skopje Appeals Court and EVN Macedonia were not immediately available to comment.
Following the first ruling in March, EVN said it planned to launch arbitration proceedings against Macedonia over what the company describes as hostile activities toward a foreign investor.
Macedonia split its communist-era power monopoly ESM into ELEM, a distribution unit, ESM, and a transmission company, Makedonski Elektro Prenosen Sistem Operator (MEPSO) AD. EVN bought 90% of ESM in 2006 for some 200 million euro ($286.2 million). Last year, it renamed it to EVN Macedonia.
(1 euro=62.0081 Macedonian denars)