The board of directors of Elektropivreda Crne Gore made a decision today to launch a new public call for the lease of the Steel Plant and Forge of Željezara Nikšić, this time for 50 years, Vijesti has learned.
With that, the EPCG Board of Directors accepted the position of the Minister of Energy and Mining, Saša Mujović, that perhaps, due to legal dilemmas and ambiguities, another public invitation should be issued for the lease of the Čeličana and Kovačnica for a period of five decades.
The protector of property and legal interests of the state, Bojana Ćirović, previously gave her consent to the revised version of the draft contract for the lease of the plant of Nikšić Željezara, which was agreed by Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) with the bidder from Switzerland, the company "8B Capital S.A", whose representative is Igor Šamis. .
DON'T MISS IT
According to that Draft, that company had a conditional green light for the lease of the Čeličana and Kovačnica facilities, but that it could not acquire ownership rights in the Nikšić factory.
Originally, the Draft Agreement provided for the right for the Swiss company to acquire the right of ownership, and this did not pass the EPCG Shareholders' Meeting.
However, due to legal dilemmas, Minister Mujović implicitly insisted, among other things, referring to the opinion of the protector, that the EPCG Board of Directors is responsible for whether everything offered in the public invitation is in accordance with the law and what is foreseen in the contract with a Swiss company.
Mujović clarified in public that in the public invitation the lease was offered for five and ten years, while in the contract with the tenant it would be 50 years, which legally creates a dilemma.
"EPCG lawyers should assess whether this is in accordance with the law and the public invitation," Mujović said earlier.
He explained that there is a message in the opinion of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests that EPCG lawyers should assess whether the text of the public invitation is in accordance with what is stipulated in the contract, which is why he warned the EPCG Board to give their opinion once again.
"Perhaps it would be legally the cleanest thing to cancel even this invitation and launch a new public invitation in which it will be said - we are not going for five and 10 years but for 50 years. Perhaps from a legal point of view, that should be the cleanest solution ", said Mujović.
He also believes that leasing the Steel Mill for 50 years would be economically profitable.
Bonus video:
