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Medved: Interblue Group Doesn't Exist, We Don't Have Any Partner
Wednesday 07 April 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, April 7 (TASR) - Environment Minister Jozef Medved announced after the government session on Wednesday that he sees no reason to communicate with the alleged legal successor of the now defunct U.S.-based Interblue Group, which bought Slovakia's surplus carbon-dioxide emission quotas in a much-criticised deal in 2008.
"The Interblue Group doesn't exist in the U.S.A., 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," said Medved, adding he won't communicate with a company that doesn't exist.
Medved explained that the ministry is currently waiting for a legal analyses to be concluded. It then plans to demand an additional payment of €15 million. In 2008, Slovakia sold 15 million tonnes of its carbon-dioxide emissions quotas to the Interblue Group at €5.05 per tonne. The company is supposed to pay a supplementary €1 per tonne for so-called green projects.
According to the contract, the company has the right of first refusal to an additional 35 million tonnes. According to Medved, these are no longer reserved for anyone and Slovakia is free to trade with them. He added that the Environment Ministry is preparing a new Green Investment Scheme (GIS), which should be aimed at a new investor and not the Interblue Group.
According to a Hospodarske Noviny daily article published on April 1, Slovakia has received an 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 - returning the emission quotas in return for money," an unnamed spokesperson for the company's new owner Milan Ruzicka told the daily.
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