Atanas Bostandjiev: Gemcorp does not have any claims against Bulgaria beyond the terminated memorandum with the ME
The memorandum was terminated already in July, the executive director of the company said
Source: bTV
According to Atanas Bostandjiev, the executive director of Gemcorp, the memorandum with Bulgaria was terminated at the end of July this year in response to a request from the Bulgarian government, without any legal consequences and the company has no claims against the state.
In the show "Face to Face" on bTV on Monday, he explained that each of the three parties - "Gemcorp", IP3 and the Bulgarian government - has the right to unilaterally terminate the memorandum, and this was done with the receipt of an official letter from the Ministry of Energy with a request for cancellation received on July 27:
"I want to state very clearly to everyone that this memorandum of understanding was a non-binding document. This is a standard letter of application, which is a tripartite agreement - between us, Gemcorp, IP3 and the Bulgarian government. This document has been terminated with effect from since July 23 of this year, when we received an official letter from the Minister of Energy at the time with a request from the Bulgarian government to terminate this memorandum, and we then confirmed from our side that we have no more claims, we have no requests to the state."
Therefore, he defined as speculation the claims of arbitration, which is present in the memorandum only in case of disclosure of confidential information, but such information was not exchanged between the parties.
"The only reason the arbitration clause exists in this non-binding contract is for confidentiality. That is, we would be suing the state if information leaked, not if the government reneged on this memorandum."
Atanas Bostandjiev stated that at the end of July, a letter was sent to the then Minister of Energy in which Gemcorp accepted the termination of the memorandum. But because of the ongoing political speculation, he will submit a second letter to the current Minister of Energy Rosen Hristov, signed by himself, that he accepts the decision to roll over and there will be no further claims from Gemcorp.
Bostandjiev was adamant that they do not have any Russian capital, as Gemcorp is regulated in the English market.
Regarding the statements regarding the subject of the memorandum, Bostandjiev stated that it is not about Bulgaria's energy sector, as falsely claimed. He commented that the idea of signing the memorandum "began at the initiative of the American company IP3, which had negotiations with the Municipality of Sofia to invest in the renovation of the capacities of "Sofia District Heating". We had a meeting with the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, IP3 and members from my company. We also had a meeting with the mayor of Sofia, after which we wrote an official statement about our interest in investing in the renovation of "Sofia District Heating". That was the essence of this memorandum with the government - this is a standard practice when a foreign investor enters one side. We have no relation and information about a battery plant project".