A fresh complaint was launched against the Albanian state on the same day that Prime Minister Edi Rama threatened to withdraw from the ICSID Arbitration Court. On April 7th, EMS Shipping & Trading, a German corporation, filed a case in Washington about a dispute over the Port of Durres concession.
This company has held the concession contract to operate the Eastern Terminal at the Port of Durres for ship loading and unloading since 2013. The Germans are upset about the proposed port transformation project, which will relocate the freight port to Porto Romano. They believe, however, that without the new port, the continuation of EMS’s concession business is in jeopardy.
The company has about 25 years left on its 35-year contract, and its profits in 2021 are expected to be around 1.3 million euros. This indicates that the damages sought in this new arbitration lawsuit might be in the tens to hundreds of millions of euros range.
Before proceeding to the trial, EMS wrote to officials of the Albanian government, the Parliament, and diplomatic representatives of Germany and the EU in Albania, stating its concerns.