Court Rules to Keep Enguri HPP Memorandum Confidential

Tbilisi Court of Appeals upheld ruling of lower court to keep a memorandum between Russia’s state-controlled power trader, Inter RAO, and the Georgian Energy Ministry on Enguri hydro power plant confidential.

The memorandum on joint management of the plant, located on the breakaway Abkhazia’s administrative border, was signed on December 30, 2008 and the document was made confidential by the Georgian Energy Ministry in mid-January, as it said, upon the request from the Russian company citing that the document contained some sensitive commercial information.

Since then Tbilisi-based legal advocacy group, Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) and the Georgian daily, Rezonansi, are engaged in legal proceedings against the Energy Ministry trying in vain to obtain the document. GYAL and the Rezonansi argue that the public interest towards very important decisions made in respect of country’s energy sector, in particular about the largest hydro power plant in the region, prevails over commercial interests of a company to keep the memorandum confidential. Both GYLA and Rezonansi said that they would now take the case to the Supreme Court.

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