OREANDA-NEWS. On 12th of May 2016, the Tribunal Panel of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), reached a decision regarding the disclosure of information directly related to the ongoing dispute.

AS Tallinna Vesi had requested that it be permitted to publish certain extracts of its Memorial, the document which sets out its case and the history of the privatisation, including the roles played by the City of Tallinn, the Government of Estonia and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The Government of Estonia objected to this and the Tribunal Panel has agreed in part to this objection, such that neither party can publish arbitration documents although, subject to certain limitations, ‘general discussion’ about the case in public is permitted.

The full decision and other procedural orders and decisions issued during the arbitration process, subject to the redaction of confidential information, are available on the ICSID website. The final hearing remains scheduled for November 2016.

In October 2014, AS Tallinna Vesi and its shareholder United Utilities (Tallinn) B.V., registered in the Kingdom of The Netherlands, commenced international arbitration proceedings against the Republic of Estonia for breach of the Agreement on the Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between the Kingdom of The Netherlands and the Republic of Estonia.