Romania has recently seen a surge in the number of cases brought against it by foreign investors, acting under bilateral investment treaties (BITs) – as has been the case in many of the neighbouring Central and Eastern European countries. Several disputes ended spectacularly, with multi-million euro awards against the host state of the investment, such as the case between CME and the Czech Republic, which has been ordered to pay approximately $350m (£176m) or, more recently, another case lost by the Czech Republic, which will have to pay damages of E225.4m (£17.3m) to a company based in the Netherlands.
So far, the Romanian Government has fared much better than some of its unluckier neighbours. Two BIT claims put forward by foreign investors have already been finalised. One of them, brought under the BIT concluded with Poland, was settled in 2004. The main terms of the settlement have become available to the public, because the government ordinance approving the deal has been published, and was favourable to Romania, which successfully avoided the payment of any damages to the Polish investor (which had sought approximately $10m (£5m), essentially for alleged expropriation actions carried out by organs of the Romanian state).
