The Belgian Justice has annulled the embargo authorization that allowed the American fund Blasket Renewable Investments to retain assets from Spain resulting from amounts owed by Eurocontrol to Enaire, and has ordered that the 75.759 million euros that remained immobilized as a guarantee be immediately returned to the Spanish public accounts.
In a ruling dated October 20, the Dutch-speaking Court of First Instance in Brussels frustrates Blasket's strategy – legal heir of the companies RREEF Jersey and RREEF Luxembourg – to obtain the compensations set in an arbitration award from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an entity of the World Bank, issued after the cuts applied by Spain to renewable energy premiums.
The ruling nullifies the embargo authorization agreed upon in June 2025, declares the subsequent seizure illegal, and orders the return to the Kingdom of Spain of the funds amounting to 75.759 million euros, plus the generated interest. Furthermore, it imposes the costs of the procedure on Blasket and declares that the decision is provisionally enforceable even if appealed.
The Belgian court states in its ruling that the forced collection of the compensation "violates European Union Law" and relies on the doctrine of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in matters such as 'Achmea', 'Komstroy', and 'Micula', in which it is established that investor-State arbitrations within the EU framework are incompatible with EU law.
In this regard, the ruling emphasizes that "the judge of embargoes considers that he cannot authorize the effective execution of said award, even when it is enforceable under Article 54 of the ICSID Convention" and adds that "the effective collection of the compensation established in the arbitration award violates European Union Law."
The judicial body also notes that basing the execution solely on the position of the British entity RREEF Jersey, with the aim of circumventing community regulations, constitutes a "legal fiction." On this point, it specifies that the execution in its name for the full amount "results, in any case, in at least an indirect violation of European Union Law, since this claim also corresponds to RREEF Luxembourg."
Likewise, the court adopts the criterion of the European Commission –which intervened in the procedure as 'amicus curiae'– by stating that the payment of these compensations without the prior authorization of Brussels would violate EU rules on state aid.
Consequently, the resolution concludes that, "in light of the notification of the arbitration award, and pending a final decision from the European Commission, no execution for the collection of the debt incurred by Spain may take place in Belgium."