Slovak Environment Minister Jozef Medveď announced after a government session on Wednesday, April 7, that he sees no reason to communicate with the claimed legal successor of the now defunct US-based Interblue Group, which bought Slovakia's surplus carbon-dioxide emissions quotas in a much-criticised deal in 2008.
"The Interblue Group doesn't exist in the USA, and we don't have any partner ... there is nothing to discuss ... some reports or presentations by project managers – I don't have any interest in those," Medveď said, as reported by the TASR newswire, adding that he will not communicate with a company that doesn't exist.
He explained that the ministry is currently waiting for legal analyses to be concluded. It then plans to demand an additional payment of €15 million, although it is not clear from whom. In 2008, Slovakia sold 15 million tonnes of its carbon-dioxide emissions quotas to Interblue Group at a price of €5.05 per tonne. The company was supposed to pay a supplementary €1 per tonne for so-called green projects. According to the contract, the company also has the right of first refusal to buy at the original price additional quotas to emit 35 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
According to Medveď, these quotas are no longer reserved for anyone and Slovakia is free to sell them. He added that the Environment Ministry is preparing a new Green Investment Scheme (GIS), which would be aimed at a new investor and not Interblue Group.
According to an article in the Hospodárske Noviny financial daily published on April 1, Slovakia has received a letter from Interblue Group Europe, offering a raft of options for dealing with the situation that has arisen. "They include the reversal of the contract - giving back the emissions quotas in return for money," an unnamed spokesperson for the company's alleged owner, Milan Ružička, told the daily.
Source: TASR
For more information, please see: New revelations blow lid on Interblue puzzle.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
