State in arbitration

Several private companies have turned to international arbitration claiming that the state of Kosovo owes them a total of 2020 million 269 thousand euros since 847. Ministry of Justice tables show that half of the cases in which the state has been sued in arbitration for this period have been concluded and the other half are in process. 

Notices of claim have been filed in two cases, while three other cases are in the initial process. The alleged value of these cases is 123.7 million euros. 

The two international arbitration cases that ended with the state losing are that of Behgjet Pacolli's "Mabco", to which it was forced to pay 6.7 million euros, and the American company "Countur Global" 20 million euros.  

While the state has won cases where the amount requested by the parties reached 120 million euros and where the plaintiffs were "Z-Mobile", "Iute-Credit" and the company "Victory", in the period 2020 - March 2025.

The Ministry of Justice says that the State Attorney's Office's dealings with international arbitrations are difficult. 

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"Due to the deadlines and complexity, dealing with these cases is very difficult. The Bar engages foreign companies and, depending on the importance of the case, the legal company that will represent RKS in arbitration is also selected," the Ministry's response states.

According to data provided to KOHË by the Ministry, the cases in the initial process are the 2024 lawsuits of the Austrian company "Kelag", which is claiming 21 million euros related to the failure to grant a permit for the construction of the "Lumëbardhi II" hydropower plant, and the case of the Albanian company "Pevlaku", which is demanding 20 million euros from the state, related to the termination of the contract for the construction of the Pristina - Vushtrri road. 

According to this document, KEDS submitted a notice of arbitration last year, stating its claim for 40 million euros. 

A similar notice, according to the Ministry, has also been submitted by the Italian construction company "INC", which claims 7.7 million euros in damages for the termination of the contract for the construction of a road near Ferizaj.

This year, the state accepted the lawsuit from "Suhareka Veraria" and "Prorena", which have claims of 35 million euros related to a privatization issue. 

Lawyer Bejtush Isufi gives several reasons why the state ended up losing in arbitration.

"There are many cases where you can definitely see failures of officials, lack of seriousness, practically harm has been caused to the economic operator or for no reason at all, the state has assumed responsibility without having any major, necessary or objective reason for such responsibility or for such stagnation, violations and loopholes," he said. 

Regarding decisions that are not in Kosovo's favor, University of Pristina professor Qerim Qerimi says that they should study how the defeat came about. 

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"There are certainly sufficient legal reasons and explanations for the arbitration tribunals, which should be carefully studied by the relevant authorities regarding the facts (i.e. institutional actions or inactions) as well as the material content of the law; this, among other things, in order to further consolidate the mechanisms of protection and representation," said Qerimi.

In local arbitration, according to the Ministry, there are three cases: two with a total value of 4.8 million euros from the companies "Premium and Standard Plus" and another case from the company "Standard Plus" with an unspecified amount.