The Americans withdrew from the “New Kosovo” project and demanded the money back
The company Kontur Global (USA) announced its withdrawal from the “New Kosovo” project for the construction of a new thermal power plant in Obilić and demanded that Pristina reimburse the previously invested 20 million euros.
This was reported by the Serbian edition of Sputnik radio, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
An agreement on the construction of the New Kosovo thermal power plant was signed between Kontur Global and the “government” of Kosovo in 2017, but now, after the Americans’ intention to leave the project, the “Ministry of Economy” of the separatist enclave expressed “surprise and disappointment” on its Facebook page.
However, the work to build a 500-megawatt thermal power plant, costing 1,3 billion euros, has been controversial from the very beginning: in mid-2018, the Energy Community Secretariat announced that some elements of the power purchase agreement between the Kosovo government and the American company were in violation rules on state aid.
The IMF and World Bank then decided not to participate in financing the project because, as they explained, the rules oblige them to support the lowest-cost options, which does not apply to coal-fired facilities.
All this at that time did not shake the determination of the Americans. Moreover, in his State of the Union address, then-US Ambassador to Kosovo and current Ambassador Philip Cosnett named “advancing energy security” as one of his diplomatic mission priorities. He then clarified that Kosovo's energy instability costs about $415 million a year, or about six percent of GDP, so, among other things, he announced US support for the construction of a thermal power plant "designed in the USA."
However, the Vienna Energy Community launched an investigation last December because the Kosovo government, distorting market competition, provided illegal subsidies for the construction of thermal power plants.
“Investments in the thermal power system in Kosovo and Metohija are directly related to the fate of the Ibar-Lepenac hydrosystem, that is, to the fate of the right to manage the system on Lake Gazivode,” commented Dusan Čelic, a professor at the University of Pristina. – This water from the lake, in addition to supplying drinking water to half the inhabitants of Kosovo and Metohija, also serves as technical water for cooling the turbines of the already existing Obilić thermal power plant.
Existing thermal power plant in Obilić
That is why every expansion of capacity and investment in new capacity implies a kind of guarantee of real rights and rights to manage the hydraulic system of Lake Gazivode (are the subject of a dispute between Belgrade and Pristina - ed.).”
Lake Gazivode
Also, according to Celic, he “does not rule out, but is deeply convinced” that the motive for refusing to invest in the project is that Kosovo society is extremely criminalized and corrupt.
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