Belgian court lifts €75.76m embargo on Spain's Enaire in renewable energy dispute

A Belgian court has lifted an embargo imposed in 2024 on Spain's state-owned air-navigation company Enaire for €75.76 million, handing Madrid a significant win in its long-running legal battle with international investors over renewable energy subsidies scrapped in 2013.

The case was brought by Blasket Renewable Investments LLC, a US investment fund that acquired the claim from RREEF, an investment fund originally linked to Deutsche Bank. RREEF had invested in Spanish wind and solar power under a 2007 regulatory framework guaranteeing subsidies, which the government of then-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the conservative People's Party removed during the European debt crisis to reduce electricity costs.

Investors turned to arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty, an international agreement signed in the 1990s. The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, part of the World Bank, ruled that Spain must pay, but the European Commission told Madrid that doing so would constitute unlawful state aid. The Commission intervened in support of Spain before the Belgian court.

The Belgian court's original decision to enforce the award had been one of the few instances where investors succeeded. Its reversal sets a precedent for other challenges Spain faces in courts in Australia, Germany and the United States. Investors are seeking at least €2 billion in total subsidies across the various cases.

In June, Blasket had issued subpoenas demanding documents from Adidas and Hilton Hotels as part of a separate bid to freeze Spanish assets linked to the country's Football World Cup participation.