Belgian media: Francesco Becchetti confiscates Albania's royalties in Eurocontrol  

A legal dispute between an Italian businessman and the Republic of Albania has just resulted in confiscations of royalties owed to Eurocontrol in Albania.

Belgian media 'L'Echo' writes that the confiscation was carried out on behalf of the Italian businessman Francesco Becchetti, after winning the case with the Albanian government in arbitration.

To understand what happened, the Belgian media has made a summary since 2013, the year of the election of Edi Rama as Prime Minister in Albania.

After coming to power, he canceled two concessions given to Italian businessman Francesco Becchetti to build a hydropower plant and a recycling plant.

In the process, an investigation for tax evasion has started against the Italian businessman and the Republic of Albania ends up freezing all its assets in Albania. This decision will lead, among other things, to the dismissal of 500 people employed by the Aegon Channel, owned by Francesco Becchetti.

The Italian businessman, defended by Hakim Boularbah and Olivier van der Haegen (Loyens & Loeff), then turned to the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)) which, by arbitration on April 24, 2019, ruled in his favor and gave him compensation of 107m euros. From the beginning, the Republic of Albania has challenged the arbitration decision and refused to pay.

In Belgium, Beckett has received the green light to confiscate Albanian money from the large European company, Eurocontrol.

Albania is one of the 41 members of this European body responsible, among other things, for collecting fares paid by airlines for flights over different territories. These tariffs are then redistributed to the overloaded States according to a distribution key managed by Eurocontrol. And it is exactly the royalties that Eurocontrol owed to the Republic of Albania that were seized.

While this seizure took place in December 2020. According to the latest news, it is a little over 170,000 euros.

The low level of these amounts is explained in particular by the crisis created by the pandemic and the reduction of flights.

Albania's opposition

The Republic of Albania, defended by Jean-François Goffin and Jean-Luc Hagon (CMS) has expressed its intention to oppose this confiscation. The issue of jurisdictional immunity will be at the center of debates. Albania's lawyers believe that the royalties paid by Eurocontrol to its Albanian counterpart (Albcontrol) are subject to this immunity and therefore cannot be confiscated. Francesco Beccheti's lawyers believe that these royalties are used to fund commercial services and can therefore be seized. The matter will be presented to the foreclosure judge on Thursday.