ArmInfo. A draft law on the seizure of Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) CJSC has been published on the official website of the Armenian Parliament, which is a classic indirect expropriation from the point of view of international investment law. This opinion was expressed by the head of the public organization "International Center for the Development of Parliamentarism", an expert on constitutional law Goar Meloyan.
"Thus, by introducing amendments and additions to the Law "On Energy", the package of draft laws proposes to provide for the powers of the Chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission to appoint a temporary administrator of ENA, who will be given all powers to manage the company. Even the general meeting of ENA shareholders will not have the right to interfere with the powers of the appointed temporary administrator. This is simply unprecedented from the point of view of corporate law," she noted on her Facebook page.
According to her, from the changes envisaged by the project, it is obvious that after the appointment of a temporary administrator, it is planned that the temporary administrator will refuse the license issued by ESA, and then an attempt will be made to nationalize the company's shares by providing the owners with a certain "compensation."
"I will touch upon many other problematic aspects of this bill a little later. However, it is obvious that its adoption and implementation will lead to numerous legal problems and losses for the Republic of Armenia.
Dear citizens, if you are unhappy with the periodic power outages of the ESA and complain that they do not turn on the electricity until you pay, then soon you may not have electricity, even if you pay," Melonyan added.
The issue of the need for the nationalization of the power grids was raised by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. Moreover, this happened immediately after the campaign against the President of the Tashir Group of Companies Karen Karapetyan and his arrest. On June 18, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia told journalists that the company's activities led to an energy crisis in the country caused by frequent power outages. According to him, a month ago he instructed the responsible persons to sort out the situation around the grids.
The company must either compensate the damage caused to the population, government agencies and the private sector within a month, or be subject to urgent nationalization. It should be noted that the Tashir Group of Companies, headed by Samvel Karapetyan, acquired Electric Networks of Armenia CJSC from Inter RAO in September 2015. Earlier, Samvel Karapetyan noted that since 2016, when Tashir Group of Companies acquired ownership rights to Electric Networks of Armenia, a total of about $900 million has been invested in Electric Networks of Armenia, $680 million of which was for modernization and $200 million for the creation of new capacities. Investments were made, including, at the expense of credit resources of international financial institutions, which led to the pledging of 100% of the shares of the CJSC.
