Notice: We are currently performing maintenance to improve the italaw platform. The site remains fully accessible. Thank you for your patience.

Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation v. Kingdom of Spain, ICSID Case No. ARB/16/4

Short Name:

Eurus Energy v. Spain

Applicable Procedural Rules:
Seat of Arbitration:
Applicable Legal Instruments:
Economic Sector:
Amount of Damages:
US $109,651,500
Other Remedy:
The Tribunal ordered Spain to pay Claimant EUR 106.2M in damages and USD 4.3M in costs, plus interest on both amounts. All other claims were dismissed.

Available documents

17 Mar 2021
Decision on Jurisdiction and Liability (English)
Decision on Jurisdiction and Liability (Spanish)
Document provided by: ICSID Website
Document Details:
PARTICIPANTS
Decision on Jurisdiction and Liability (English)
Decision on Jurisdiction and Liability (Spanish)
Participants listed are for this document only and may not include all participants involved in the entire case. Always consult the original documents.
Claimant appointee
Claimant appointee:
Respondent appointee
Respondent appointee:
Tribunal/Panel chair
Chair/President:
Arbitrator(s)
Sole Arbitrator
ICSID Annulment Committee president
ICSID Annulment Committee members
WTO Appellate Body members
WTO Appellate Body chair
Judges
Other counsel
Claimant's expert
Respondent's expert
Claimant's witness
Respondent's witness
Other witnesses
Tribunal secretary
Tribunal assistant
Country
Print reporter
Entities
Document Summary
Decision on Jurisdiction and Liability (English)
Decision on Jurisdiction and Liability (Spanish)
This summary note is machine-generated. Always consult the original materials.


17 Mar 2021
Partial Dissent by Oscar M. Garibaldi (English)
Partial Dissent by Oscar M. Garibaldi (Spanish)
Document provided by: ICSID Website
Document Details:
PARTICIPANTS
Partial Dissent by Oscar M. Garibaldi (English)
Partial Dissent by Oscar M. Garibaldi (Spanish)
Participants listed are for this document only and may not include all participants involved in the entire case. Always consult the original documents.
Claimant appointee
Claimant appointee:
Respondent appointee
Respondent appointee:
Tribunal/Panel chair
Arbitrator(s)
Sole Arbitrator
ICSID Annulment Committee president
ICSID Annulment Committee members
WTO Appellate Body members
WTO Appellate Body chair
Judges
Claimant's expert
Respondent's expert
Claimant's witness
Respondent's witness
Other witnesses
Tribunal secretary
Tribunal assistant
Country
Print reporter
Entities
Document Summary
Partial Dissent by Oscar M. Garibaldi (English)
Partial Dissent by Oscar M. Garibaldi (Spanish)
This summary note is machine-generated. Always consult the original materials.


14 Nov 2022
Award
Document provided by: IAReporter
Document Details:
PARTICIPANTS
Award
Participants listed are for this document only and may not include all participants involved in the entire case. Always consult the original documents.
Claimant appointee
Claimant appointee:
Respondent appointee
Respondent appointee:
Tribunal/Panel chair
Chair/President:
Arbitrator(s)
Sole Arbitrator
ICSID Annulment Committee president
ICSID Annulment Committee members
WTO Appellate Body members
WTO Appellate Body chair
Judges
Other counsel
Claimant's expert
Respondent's expert
Claimant's witness
Respondent's witness
Other witnesses
Tribunal secretary
Tribunal assistant
Country
Print reporter
Entities
Document Summary
Award
This summary note is machine-generated. Always consult the original materials.


15 May 2023
Decision on Rectification
Document Details:
PARTICIPANTS
Decision on Rectification
Participants listed are for this document only and may not include all participants involved in the entire case. Always consult the original documents.
Claimant appointee
Claimant appointee:
Respondent appointee
Respondent appointee:
Tribunal/Panel chair
Chair/President:
Arbitrator(s)
Sole Arbitrator
ICSID Annulment Committee president
ICSID Annulment Committee members
WTO Appellate Body members
WTO Appellate Body chair
Judges
Other counsel
Claimant's expert
Respondent's expert
Claimant's witness
Respondent's witness
Other witnesses
Tribunal secretary
Tribunal assistant
Country
Print reporter
Entities
Document Summary
Decision on Rectification
This summary note is machine-generated. Always consult the original materials.


19 Mar 2024
Decision on the Request to Continue the Stay of Enforcement of the Award
Document Details:
PARTICIPANTS
Decision on the Request to Continue the Stay of Enforcement of the Award
Participants listed are for this document only and may not include all participants involved in the entire case. Always consult the original documents.
Claimant appointee
Claimant appointee:
Respondent appointee
Respondent appointee:
Tribunal/Panel chair
Chair/President:
Arbitrator(s)
Sole Arbitrator
ICSID Annulment Committee president
ICSID Annulment Committee members
WTO Appellate Body members
WTO Appellate Body chair
Judges
Other counsel
Claimant's expert
Respondent's expert
Claimant's witness
Respondent's witness
Other witnesses
Tribunal secretary
Tribunal assistant
Country
Print reporter
Entities
Document Summary
Decision on the Request to Continue the Stay of Enforcement of the Award
This summary note is machine-generated. Always consult the original materials.


17 Jun 2024
Decision on Lifting the Stay of Enforcement
Document Details:
PARTICIPANTS
Decision on Lifting the Stay of Enforcement
Participants listed are for this document only and may not include all participants involved in the entire case. Always consult the original documents.
Claimant appointee
Claimant appointee:
Respondent appointee
Respondent appointee:
Tribunal/Panel chair
Chair/President:
Arbitrator(s)
Sole Arbitrator
ICSID Annulment Committee president
ICSID Annulment Committee members
WTO Appellate Body members
WTO Appellate Body chair
Judges
Other counsel
Claimant's expert
Respondent's expert
Claimant's witness
Respondent's witness
Other witnesses
Tribunal secretary
Tribunal assistant
Country
Print reporter
Entities
Document Summary
Decision on Lifting the Stay of Enforcement
This summary note is machine-generated. Always consult the original materials.


11 Jun 2025
Petition to Enforce Arbitral Award
Document Details:
PARTICIPANTS
Petition to Enforce Arbitral Award
Participants listed are for this document only and may not include all participants involved in the entire case. Always consult the original documents.
Claimant appointee
Claimant appointee:
Respondent appointee
Respondent appointee:
Tribunal/Panel chair
Chair/President:
Arbitrator(s)
Sole Arbitrator
ICSID Annulment Committee president
ICSID Annulment Committee members
WTO Appellate Body members
WTO Appellate Body chair
Judges
Other counsel
Claimant's expert
Respondent's expert
Claimant's witness
Respondent's witness
Other witnesses
Tribunal secretary
Tribunal assistant
Country
Print reporter
Entities
Document Summary
Petition to Enforce Arbitral Award
This summary note is machine-generated. Always consult the original materials.


19 Mar 2026
Decision of the Hague District Court (Dutch)
Document Details:
PARTICIPANTS
Decision of the Hague District Court (Dutch)
Participants listed are for this document only and may not include all participants involved in the entire case. Always consult the original documents.
Claimant appointee
Respondent appointee
Tribunal/Panel chair
Arbitrator(s)
Sole Arbitrator
ICSID Annulment Committee president
ICSID Annulment Committee members
WTO Appellate Body members
WTO Appellate Body chair
Claimant's counsel
Respondent's counsel
Other counsel
Claimant's expert
Respondent's expert
Claimant's witness
Respondent's witness
Other witnesses
Tribunal secretary
Tribunal assistant
Country
Country in which this occurs:
Print reporter
Document Summary
Decision of the Hague District Court (Dutch)
This summary note is machine-generated. Always consult the original materials.

Procedural Background and Decision

This document is a decision (beschikking) issued by the Preliminary Relief Judge of the District Court of The Hague (Rechtbank Den Haag) on an application for the recognition and enforcement of several decisions rendered in an ICSID arbitration (ICSID Case No. ARB/16/4). The underlying arbitration was between Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation and the Kingdom of Spain. The application for enforcement in the Netherlands was filed by Blasket Renewable Investments LLC.

Operative Part

The court granted the application. The decision formally recognizes and grants leave for the enforcement in the Netherlands of the following arbitral decisions: the interim award of 17 March 2021, the final award of 14 November 2022, the decision on rectification of 15 May 2023, and the decision on annulment of 31 July 2025. The court also ordered the Kingdom of Spain to pay the applicant's court fees, which were assessed at €165.00.



21 Jul 2026
Judgment of the Rotterdam District Court (Dutch)
Document Details:
PARTICIPANTS
Judgment of the Rotterdam District Court (Dutch)
Participants listed are for this document only and may not include all participants involved in the entire case. Always consult the original documents.
Claimant appointee
Respondent appointee
Tribunal/Panel chair
Arbitrator(s)
Sole Arbitrator
ICSID Annulment Committee president
ICSID Annulment Committee members
WTO Appellate Body members
WTO Appellate Body chair
Respondent's counsel
Claimant's expert
Respondent's expert
Claimant's witness
Respondent's witness
Other witnesses
Tribunal secretary
Tribunal assistant
Country
Country in which this occurs:
Print reporter
Document Summary
Judgment of the Rotterdam District Court (Dutch)
This summary note is machine-generated. Always consult the original materials.

Procedural Background

This document is a judgment in summary proceedings (kort geding) rendered by the District Court of Rotterdam. The Kingdom of Spain sought the immediate lifting of an executory attachment (beslag) levied by Blasket Renewable Investments LLC on a property located in Utrecht. Blasket, acting as the assignee of Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation, had previously obtained an ex parte leave for enforcement (exequatur) from the District Court of The Hague to enforce an ICSID arbitral award rendered against Spain. The State of the Netherlands intervened in the proceedings in support of Spain, and the European Commission submitted observations as amicus curiae.

Principal Legal Issues and Parties' Positions

The principal issues before the Court were whether the executory attachment was procedurally defective and whether the attached property enjoyed sovereign immunity from execution. Spain argued that the attachment was void because Blasket failed to properly serve the authentic enforceable copy (grosse) of the exequatur decision. Furthermore, Spain, supported by the Netherlands, asserted that the property—used by the Instituto Cervantes—was designated for public, non-commercial purposes and thus immune from execution under customary international law. Blasket contended that the property was used for commercial events and language courses at market rates, thereby falling under the commercial exception to sovereign immunity.

Tribunal's Analysis and Findings

The Court first addressed the procedural validity of the attachment. Applying Article 430(3) of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure, the Court found that Blasket had failed to serve an official, authentic copy of the exequatur decision on Spain, having instead served an uncertified English translation with a copied stamp. This procedural defect rendered the enforcement measures void. Turning to the issue of sovereign immunity, the Court applied the standard reflected in Article 19(c) of the UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property. The Court determined that the Instituto Cervantes is a public entity tasked with promoting Spanish language and culture. The Court held that the property's ultimate purpose is public and non-commercial, and the generation of incidental revenue from cultural events or courses did not alter its sovereign designation. Consequently, the property enjoyed immunity from execution.

Decision and Operative Directions

The District Court ordered the immediate lifting of the executory attachment on the Utrecht property. Blasket was ordered to pay the procedural costs incurred by both Spain and the State of the Netherlands. Furthermore, the Court declared itself incompetent to hear Blasket's conditional counterclaims against Spain and declared Blasket's claims against the European Union inadmissible.



Case Summary
This summary note is machine-generated. Always consult the original materials.

In Eurus Energy Holdings v. Spain, the claimant, a Japanese energy investor, brought a claim under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) against Spain for its comprehensive reform of the renewable energy sector. Eurus alleged that legislative changes between 2012 and 2014, which replaced a feed-in tariff (FiT) regime with a new system based on a 'reasonable rate of return', violated its rights under ECT Articles 10(1) (fair and equitable treatment) and 13 (expropriation) by drastically reducing revenues from its 21 wind farms. The tribunal, administered by ICSID, first issued a decision on jurisdiction and liability in March 2021. It declined jurisdiction over claims related to a 7% tax on electricity production, finding it a bona fide taxation measure carved out by ECT Article 21. However, it affirmed jurisdiction over the merits of the FET and expropriation claims, dismissing Spain's objections based on the CJEU's Achmea decision, holding it inapplicable to a dispute involving a non-EU investor under the multilateral ECT. On the merits, the tribunal dismissed the expropriation claim, finding that the claimant did not possess an 'acquired right' to an immutable subsidy regime under Spanish law. The decision rested on the fair and equitable treatment (FET) standard. The tribunal found that while Spain retained its regulatory power, any changes must be proportionate. It concluded that the claimant did not have a legitimate expectation that the specific FiT regime would continue indefinitely. Nevertheless, the tribunal found one specific element of the reforms breached the stability obligation inherent in the FET standard: a 'retro-active claw-back' mechanism. This feature calculated the new reasonable return by taking into account subsidies already lawfully paid, effectively penalizing the investor for past performance. The tribunal found this action to be a disproportionate impairment of the investment and ordered the parties to negotiate the quantum attributable solely to this breach. In a partial dissent, arbitrator Oscar Garibaldi disagreed with the dismissal of the remainder of the FET claim, arguing that the majority wrongly disregarded Spain's specific commitments and that the reforms as a whole constituted a radical change that frustrated the investor's reasonable expectations. Following the death of the tribunal's president, James Crawford, the tribunal was reconstituted with Anne K. Hoffmann as president. As the parties failed to agree on damages, the case entered a quantum phase. In its final Award of November 2022, the tribunal largely adopted the claimant's methodology, crucially selecting a later valuation date (June 2021) to ensure full reparation. It ordered Spain to pay Eurus €106.2 million in damages, plus interest, and approximately USD 4.3 million in costs. In September 2023, Spain applied to annul the Award and requested a stay of enforcement. An ad hoc Committee was constituted, comprising Bernard Hanotiau (President), Katherine González Arrocha, and Penelope J. Ridings. In a March 2024 decision, the Committee addressed the stay, rejecting Spain's request for an unconditional stay due to a "real risk" of non-compliance. Instead, it made the continuation of the stay conditional upon Spain posting appropriate security. After Spain failed to post the security as ordered in a subsequent April 2024 decision, the Committee, on 17 June 2024, lifted the stay of enforcement entirely. It concluded that Spain's non-compliance removed the justification for the stay, thereby permitting Eurus to pursue enforcement of the Award while the annulment application remains pending.