The US fund that has managed to activate the embargo of the Cervantes Institute in London increases the pressure on the State by attacking the Spanish public debt. In the letter addressed by the lawyer for the Blasket Renewable Investments fund to the agent bank for the Spanish public debt, Chase Manhattan Bank formally requires the execution of bonds for “default” to the State and that it is “the first time since 1936”.
According to this letter to which EL MUNDO has had access, the lawyer explains that the US fund invokes the “default” clause – a technical non-payment – because “Spain has partially or totally failed to comply with its payment obligations for international arbitration awards ( …) due to changes in its regulatory regime of the renewable energy sector that constitute violations of Spain’s commitments with the Energy Charter Treaty».
And he adds to Chase that “for contextualization, Spain has more pending and unpaid awards than any other country in the world, except Venezuela.” Also that “Blasket considers that it is the first time that Spain has defaulted on its sovereign debt stock since 1936, which places it as the first European country since Greece defaulted on its loan from the International Monetary Fund in June 2015.”
The Bloomberg agency titled this Friday the request by Blasket, based in Delaware, as “a blow to Spain for a technical non-payment requirement in the renewable energy conflict” and it is an initiative that harms the financial reputation of the fourth economy in the euro. The Ministry of Economic Affairs directed by Nadia Calviño received the notification, but refuses to pay. “We will respond in due time and in the meantime we do not assume any responsibility. We reserve all our rights”, is the official response to Blasket from the General Secretary of the Treasury.
Sources from the Ministry concisely add to this newspaper that “any initiative, by any channel against the Kingdom of Spain based on these awards will have a response in the appropriate sphere, because Spain’s position is very well established and of course it has nothing to do with with the state debt.
However, the requirement against public debt is already activated and running. In the letters addressed to Chase and the Bank of New York Mellon, as agent banks, Blasket concludes that “as a consequence of Spain’s failure to pay the debt, this issue is due and payable and, consequently, is immediately repayable with interest ». He thus requests the execution of up to four debt issues in various currencies for a value of 910 million, invoking the clause provided for any debt holder of “default event”. Blasket thus tries to collect at least the 200 million owed to him in his case.
It is the clause provided when the State «fails to pay due and timely the principal, the premium, the advance payment (if any) or the interest of any debt of, assumed or guaranteed by Spain, at the moment in which said debt matures and the default continues beyond the grace period applicable to the operation in question”.
Blasket indicates in his letters that the awards lost by Spain exceed 1,175 million euros. The funds try to collect them with different Spanish assets abroad, in this case the public debt itself. “So far, none of these debts incurred in firm and binding awards have been paid and the interest continues to mount,” he notes in his letter to Chase.
The origin is a regime of subsidies from the Government of Zapatero that exceeded all forecasts and forced the Minister of Industry at the time, Miguel Sebastián, to attempt a cut. It was the subsequent government of Rajoy that applied a retroactive snip that unleashed a rain of claims for funds alleging legal uncertainty. The ICSID arbitration court has agreed with them in several cases, but the Sánchez government refuses to pay and trusts in the support of Brussels.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project