The International Court of Arbitration in Geneva (Switzerland) ruled in favor of Rosatom. Bulgaria’s state-owned energy supplier NEK EAD will pay Rosatom a compensation totaling 620 million Euros, with a penalty of 167,000 Euros accrued daily until the compensation is paid in full.

In September, the Russian-Bulgarian working group met in Bulgaria to discuss the execution of the court ruling on the Belene NPP project. Russia insists on the immediate execution of the court order by Bulgaria and payment of the compensation, and expects to receive information from the Bulgarian party about the terms of payment, a spokesman for Rosatom said after the meeting.

Bulgaria’s answer was not long in coming. According to Temenuzhka Petkova, Bulgarian Minister of Energy, the payment will be made in installments. The first 400 million Euros will be paid to Rosatom by the end of December 2016. Petkova assured Rosatom that Bulgaria intended to repay its debt within the shortest time possible.

The framework agreement for the construction of a 2 GW nuclear station near the town of Belene was signed between Rosatom and Bulgaria in 2006, but the parties have never concluded a construction contract. In 2012, Bulgaria quitted the Belene project. Rosatom’s engineering subsidiary AtomStroyExport had manufactured the first batch of equipment for Belene and assembled the reactor by that time. Subsequently, Rosatom filed a lawsuit against NEK EAD, the construction project owner, claiming one billion Euros.