This document is a Decision by the ad hoc Committee in the ICSID annulment proceeding between Telefónica S.A. and the Republic of Colombia. The Decision addresses Colombia's request for reconsideration of the Committee's prior decision dated 9 January 2026, which had granted a stay of enforcement of the arbitral award conditional upon Colombia providing an irrevocable bank guarantee.

Colombia sought reconsideration, arguing that its domestic public credit laws rendered it legally impossible to issue the required guarantee within the prescribed timeframe, a process it claimed would take at least six months. It reiterated its commitment to voluntarily comply with the award if its annulment application were rejected, asserting there was no risk of non-payment. Telefónica opposed the request, arguing that the domestic laws cited by Colombia were pre-existing and did not constitute a change of circumstances justifying reconsideration. It requested that the stay be lifted due to Colombia's failure to comply with the condition.

The Committee rejected Colombia's request for reconsideration. It found that the State's internal administrative procedures and legal framework did not constitute a valid reason to alter the conditions for the stay. The Committee recalled the principle, codified in Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, that a party may not invoke its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty obligation. It held that the complexities of Colombia's domestic administrative processes were within the State's own control and could not excuse non-compliance with its international obligations or shift the resulting prejudice onto the award creditor.

However, pursuant to ICSID Arbitration Rule 54(3), the Committee decided to modify the terms of the stay. It rejected Colombia's request to make the stay unconditional but granted Colombia a final, additional period of thirty days to provide the specified bank guarantee. The Committee determined that if the guarantee is not provided within this new deadline, the stay of enforcement of the award will be lifted immediately. The decision on the costs of this procedural incident was reserved for the final decision on the annulment application.