Czech firm EDU II will certainly appeal injunction over Dukovany

Elektrárna Dukovany II (EDU II), the company in charge of the nuclear tender, will certainly challenge the injunction with which the Regional Court in Brno blocked the signing of the final agreement for Dukovany. It will therefore soon file a cassation appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC). Company head Petr Závodský told reporters today. The company believes the SAC will rule in its favor. Due to the delay, the company must also again ask KHNP and EDF to extend their bids in the tender.

The Brno court ruled at EDF's request. The French company had challenged a decision by the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS), which found the tender to be in order. EDU II, which is 80 percent state-owned and 20 percent owned by ČEZ, had planned to sign the contract today. The court's Tuesday injunction therefore postpones the signing of the agreement. The court has not yet ruled on EDF's lawsuit.

According to the company, the Regional Court did not give sufficient consideration to the public interest in ensuring an adequate electricity supply in the country in the future, which is linked to the entire Dukovany project. "Our interests, those of Czech citizens and of shareholders, have been harmed," Závodský said.

The company is convinced that the court did not rule correctly on Tuesday and that the Supreme Administrative Court, where it will file its cassation appeal, will rule in its favor as soon as possible. Under administrative deadlines, the appeal must be filed within two weeks; company representatives said this would most likely happen sometime next week. It is not yet clear how long the SAC will take to decide on the appeal.

Závodský also repeated the company's appeal to EDF made on Tuesday, urging the French company to publish its bid to build nuclear units at Dukovany. He maintains that the selected bid from South Korea's KHNP was better in every respect. He also warned that if the court finds the French company's lawsuit to be unfounded, the Czech company will seek damages from EDF. The French company declined to comment.

The government decided last July to build two new nuclear reactors. It preferred South Korea's KHNP bid over that of France's EDF. Another bidder, Westinghouse, had already been excluded from the competition. Both EDF and Westinghouse challenged the tender before the competition authority, which considered the case for several months. It ultimately dismissed the objections, and on 24 April its chairman, Petr Mlsna, also dismissed the companies' appeals.