The move comes six months after Invenergy formally notified the Polish government of its intention to seek international arbitration if the dispute was not resolved in an amicable way.

Since then, Invenergy said it had received continued denials from the Polish government. "The Polish government's lack of willingness to cooperate and denials of established facts are a major threat to the bedrocks of foreign investment and international law," Invenergy chief legal officer Michael Blazer said.

Invenergy has now issued a notice of arbitration to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law under the US-Poland bilateral investment treaty.

The US firm cited "violations of Invenergy's rights as a foreign investor and clear breaches of Poland's obligations" under the treaty.

"We of course first turned to the Polish courts for relief from these actions. But in those cases, multiple Polish state-controlled entities have openly disregarded final and binding decisions by the Polish courts, including the supreme court, leaving Invenergy helpless to enforce its rights within the Polish system," said Blazer.

"Given the disregard of fair and equitable treatment of a foreign investor in Poland, Invenergy has no choice but to seek relief through international arbitration under the bilateral investment treaty."

Invenergy claims a subsidiary of majority-state-owned utility Tauron Polska Energie "destroyed the financial viability" of Invenergy’s investments in four wind projects, with damages amounting to around $700 million (€592.17 million).

Tauron began proceedings to liquidate the subsidiary, thereby annulling any power deals, in July 2014, but this liquidation was never formally completed.

The Polish utility insisted the liquidation process was "in line with Polish law, foreign investment protection, contract loyalty principles and good trading habits".

However, Invenergy said the state firm "initiated a series of coordinated actions intended to terminate or avoid obliagations under the Invenergy contracts".</s>A US renewable energy group Invenergy said on Tuesday it had begun international arbitration against Poland, claiming it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars (euros) after the EU country reneged on its commitments to build wind farms.

Between 2005 and 2015, Invenergy built 11 wind farms in Poland, investing "hundreds of millions of dollars of equity capital to develop and construct the projects."

They had been agreed as part of strategy to slowly wean Poland off its heavy reliance on coal and increase the share of renewables in its energy mix.

But the current new government under the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party is more favourable to the coal industry and has put the brakes on the renewables drive.

Last year, it pushed through legislation limiting existing subsidies for wind farms and imposing tight restrictions on the construction of new ones.

Critics, including Invenergy, argue such measures make it virtually impossible for wind farms to turn a profit or for new ones to be built.

Invenergy accused Warsaw of initiating "a series of coordinated actions intended to terminate or avoid obligations under the Invenergy contracts and destabilize the broader renewable energy environment for investors."

It said its 11 eleven wind farms remain operational but were not profitable. And it was putting further wind farm projects in Poland on hold.

Invenergy said it was forced to turn to international arbitration after "multiple Polish state-controlled entities openly disregarded final and binding decisions by the Polish courts, including the Supreme Court" that have ruled in the company's favour.

Neither the prime minister's office nor the energy ministry were immediately available for comment.

Both the current right-wing government and previous administrations have based their energy policy on plentiful domestic coal and taken little action to invest in or promote renewables to mitigate heavy pollution.

Smog from coal has spiked to record levels nationwide in recent years, with experts estimating there are some 50,000 premature pollution-related deaths per year in the country of 38 million people.

Poland is set to host the UN's COP 24 international conference on climate change late this year.</s>Response to the letter of 59 U.S. Senators to Mateusz Morawiecki, The Prime Minister of Poland

To: T he Honorable Members of the U.S. Senate

The Honorable Members of the U.S. Senate,

As Polish American voters we write to you to express our concern over your open letter to the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki dated March 26, 2018.

First, we would like to thank you for your congratulations to the Polish people on the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence. In 1918, following World War I, with the support of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, Poland was restored to the map of Europe. We are grateful for the expression of your continued commitment to the development of mutually beneficial Polish-American relationships.

As your constituents, we are, however, saddened and alarmed by the fact that your letter to the Polish Prime Minister advocates only on behalf of the Jewish Holocaust victims but ignores the millions of Polish victims of World War II. Let us remind you, that millions of properties in partitioned, German and Soviet occupied Poland were first expropriated, then despoiled, dismantled or destroyed by Germany and the Soviet Union, and then finally nationalized by the postwar Communist government of Poland. We feel that your letter not only oversimplifies a very complex issue of the so-called property restitution, but it also surprisingly and unknowingly seems to blend nationalized properties with an extralegal issue of the so-called “restitution of heirless property”, a concept which carries a clear contradiction in terms, as heirless property refers to properties of the Polish citizens that legally and orderly escheated to the Polish state. The organizations making such extralegal claims on heirless property have absolutely no legal standing.

While nationalized properties claims are a subject of a big restitution bill proposed by the Polish Ministry of Justice, the “restitution of heirless properties” should not be a subject of your concern at all, as there is no legal or moral basis for that concept. It would be unconscionable to claim expropriation from the rightful present owners of their property, which they legally and properly acquired after the war. We would like to emphasize that Jewish property claims have been handled and settled by numerous post-war compensation schemes, most notably by the Luxemburg Agreement between Israel and Germany. On the basis of this Agreement the State of Israel, Jewish claims organizations and individuals obtained a compensation from Germany amounting to100 billion 2018 US dollars. The compensation served as settlement for all the human and material losses suffered by European Jews as the result of genocidal German policies and destruction of Jewish property. We must underline that based on the international law; the Republic of Poland is not a party to any agreements or treaties that would require Poland to make changes to its inheritance law which would mandate Poland to favor any special groups of people.

The American diplomat and lead negotiator at the Claims Conference Stuart E. Eizenstat once stated regarding post-Communist Eastern Europeans: “I found a seething bitterness that their citizens, also Hitler’s victims, had never received compensation from the Germans comparable to the billions paid to Jewish Holocaust victims.”[1]We feel the same bitterness while reading your letter.

As Polish Americans, we strongly object to your letter for the following additional reasons:
• INEQUITABLE TREATMENT. The letter of 59 Senators to Polish Prime Minister (“Letter”) states that “members of the U.S. Senate on both sides of the aisle stand united in seeking justice for victims of the Holocaust and their descendants,” while in fact the Letter is concerned only with justice for Jewish victims of the Holocaust and their descendants at the expense of Polish (and numerous other) victims of the Holocaust and their descendants. By doing so, the Letter confirms and supports the recent attempts to limit the definition of the Holocaust only to Jewish victims; hence it disregards millions of Polish victims of German genocide and disrespects millions of Americans of Polish descent. Millions of Polish WWII victims and Polish Holocaust survivors and their descendants never received any compensation from the occupiers for or the return of their properties, in particular those located in the Eastern part of Poland, which was annexed by the Soviet Union.
• INACURACY. The Letter grossly underestimates the number of victims of Polish ethnicity during the Holocaust by stating: “murder of almost 2 million non-Jews and 3 million of Jewish Poles.” Such a statement contradicts the data presented by the California Model Curriculum for Human Rights and Genocide that provides the losses of ethnic Poles in WWII at 3 million people.[2] It also ignores the findings of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) that estimates the losses for ethnic Poles at a minimum of 2.7 million people without counting the millions of Polish victims of the genocide conducted by the Soviet Union.[3]Therefore; the Letter uses inaccurate data and mimics a widespread anti-Polish bias in Holocaust scholarship and education.
• INJUSTICE. Although the Letter calls on the Polish government to pass national legislation that facilitates restitution in “a fair, comprehensive and nondiscriminatory manner,” it instead results in advocating for a privileged treatment of the Jewish victims over the Polish victims of German persecution.The Letter supports full-value property compensation against all prevailing practices. For instance, according to State Department records, the 1960 compensation agreement between the United States and Poland, administration of which was handled by the United States, resulted according to the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues in payments equal to 30 percent of actual value of the property. The above agreement compensated the U.S. citizens who had been legal owners of properties located in Poland at the time of nationalization.[4]
• The Letter calls on Poland to compensate Jewish victims for industrial assets destroyed by Germany. It would be a gross travesty of justice and falsification of history if the US Senate attempted to oblige and coerce Poland to provide restitution for property that was taken and destroyed by the willful and criminal actions of German and Soviet occupiers of Poland.
• The Letter calls for another round of payments on American citizens’ claims in direct violation of the Indemnification Clause of the 1960 Bilateral Agreement between Poland and the USA.[5]
• DISCRIMINATION UNDER TEREZIN DECLARATION.[6]The Letter bases its demands on the text of the Terezin Declaration, a legally non-binding document that openly discriminates against non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, in particular it discriminates against the ethnic Polish Holocaust Survivors.
• EXCLUSION. The Terezin Declaration deals with the wellbeing of Jewish victims defined as “Holocaust (Shoah)” and non-Jewish victims defined as “other victims of Nazi persecution.” However, when it comes to the most important compensation claims to immovable (real) property,it limits such claims to Jewish victims only. The section entitled “Immovable (Real) Property “excludes “non-Jewish victims of Nazi persecution.” This key section of the entire declaration refers only to the Jewish victims defined as “Holocaust (Shoah)” victims, and unreasonably and in a biased way excludes millions of Polish victims defined as “other victims of Nazi persecution.” Polish victims’ rights to property compensation are disregarded. As evidenced, the Terezin Declaration visibly sanctions the unwarranted and biased discrimination against the Polish Holocaust Survivors as well as other victims of Nazi persecution, and their heirs, with respect to real property compensation claims.
• “OTHER”. The Terezin Declaration diminishes the Polish suffering and discriminates against the Polish victims of the Holocaust by treating millions of Poles murdered by Germans merely as “other victims.” A US citizen Bozenna Urbanowicz-Gilbride addresses this insult as follows: “Today we are merely the ‘other victims.’ We have no face, no name, we are nobody. That is how the Polish Catholic Holocaust Survivors are treated. Is that the way we, human beings, should treat each other?”[7]
• NAZIS. The Terezin Declaration diminishes and attempts to eliminate the guilt of Germany for the crimes committed in Poland by, inter alia, replacing the word “Germany” with “Nazi perpetrators.” Your Letter includes the historically and linguistically incorrect term “Nazi”. “Nazi” is a stateless concept. By using such terminology, it shifts the blame for the Holocaust from Germany to some undefined “Nazi perpetrators.” Polish Americans consider such manipulation of language as a willful and immoral attempt to hide the exclusive responsibility of Germany for its genocidal policies conducted on the territory of occupied Poland. Use of the term “Nazi perpetrators” is a clear attempt to shift the blame for the German genocidal policies to the victims, the Polish Holocaust Survivors, who are arbitrarily excluded in your Letter from the proposed immovable property compensation scheme. We believe that such manipulations of language constitute a clear form of Holocaust Denial (see Article 5 of the definition of Holocaust Denial adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance[8]in that the language used does not uphold historical justice. The nationality of the real perpetrators of the Holocaust, Germans, should not be hidden behind the curtain of twisted, politically motivated revisions to language. It is exactly this flawed language that leads to the use of historically false and offensive terms like “Polish death camps” by the global media. It is this linguistic relativity and the demands of historic justice which led the Polish parliament to pass the so-called “Holocaust bill” in January 2018, which met with so many unjustified reactions among the American politicians, including the U.S. Congress and the media.
• POLISH SUFFERING. An example of the widespread and long-lasting suppression of the reporting of the suffering of ethnic Poles in World War II in the United States has been documented in the letter to the U.S. Congress by the Polish Catholic Holocaust Survivor Bozenna Urbanowicz-Gilbride dated March12, 20187. For speaking up about the Polish suffering under German occupation, she has been systematically attacked as anti-Semite, bullied, abused and even physically confronted.
• BIAS IN HOLOCAUST EDUCATION. We call on the U.S. Congress to stop supporting and condoning the anti-Polish bias in Holocaust scholarship and education, and we call on the U.S. Congress to mandate the establishment of the Polish Department of the Holocaust Memorial Museum that shall be managed and operated by Polish Americans capable of telling the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of the millions of Polish victims. The current suppression of the voice of Polish victims and the near-monopoly of the Jewish perspective in the Holocaust study curriculum has had the harmful effect of distorting the history of the World War II and of the Holocaust, and results in anti-Polonism.
• VIOLATION OF THE CONTINOUS NATIONALITY RULE. The statement in your Letter: “We are deeply concerned that the bill, in its current form, would discriminate against virtually all American survivors and heirs on the basis that they are not currently citizens of Poland and that they were not residents of Poland when their property was nationalized.” collides with and contradicts the legal continuous nationality principle. This principle implies that a State may only exercise protection on behalf of a person, natural or legal, who was a national at both the time of the injury in respect of which the claim is brought and at the time of the presentation of the claim.[9] The Terezin Declaration, a legally non-binding document characterized by a very high level of abstraction and generality, should not repress the public international law.
• VIOLATION OF THE POLISH CIVIL CODE. Your Letter states: “As a result of the Nazi attempt to exterminate world Jewry, most European Jewish families were completely destroyed, including 90% of Poland’s Jewish community. Therefore, the remaining Jewish heirs are often non-linear — such as nieces, nephews, and cousins.” This statement contradicts the Polish Civil Code, especially Articles 932 – 936, which disallows a non-linear inheritance.[10] In addition, Poland should not be held responsible for the genocidal policies of the German Third Reich, which resulted in extermination of the majority of European Jews. The proper address for such claims continues to be Berlin.We cannot repeat it enough: It was Poland and only Poland, which asked Allies in 1942 to stop the extermination of Jews by Germany. To no avail, the Allies DID NOTHING to halt the German slaughter![11]
• APPLICATION PROCESS. The Letter criticizes “the one-year window for filing claims” as too short. It must be stressed that legal and administrative venues presently exist in Poland and other European Union countries to adjudicate claims in a court of law by those individuals and organizations that have legal standing for each particular claim. The potential foreign claimants will have enough time to prepare all the documents and to submit them to the Polish courts. Your criticism is unjustified. The proposed restitution bill will not impede but will facilitate the claims handling process.

Last, but not least, we must stress that Act S. 447 (Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act of 2017) was passed by the Senate on December 12, 2017 by acclamation. The Senate proceeded with the Bill without affording their Polish American constituents to be heard on the issue. Act S. 447 includes fundamentally anti-Polish extralegal elements, lacking any real legal and moral basis. If enacted and implemented, the Act would threaten Poland’s economic and political viability, if not its very ability to exist. We are deeply concerned about the possible impact and long term ramifications, which the Act S. 447 would have on Poland, and that the Polish-American voice in the process was strangely and in an unacceptable way excluded.

Let us conclude with a fragment from the speech of Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in history of the House of Representatives, dated March 6, 2018:

Now is a time for unity, not division. Now is a time for restraint, not antagonism. Now is the time for reasoned dialogue, not media taunts. And let me commend the Polish-Israeli Reconciliation Commission for its reasoned progress and recent statement. Now is the time for diplomatic excellence and military readiness, not provocative gestures, legislative or otherwise. Now is the time for robust archival restoration so the full truth of millions who perished can be known and recorded forever. Now is the time to strengthen freedom’s umbrella, not weaken it. May I extend all congratulations and blessings to Poland on its 100th anniversary of reborn nationhood.[12]</s>Canadian energy company Boralex has agreed to buy French wind energy developer Kallista Energy Investment from Ardian Infrastructure for €129.4m.

The transaction, which will see Boralex add Kallista Energy’s 163MW of installed wind power projects in France, includes assumption of €94m in project debt by the Canadian firm.

The operating wind power projects in the transaction have an average remaining life of eight years under contract. Also, the deal includes a 10MW ready-to-build project and a 158MW portfolio of projects.

Through the acquisition, Boralex said that it will boost its position as a major independent producer of wind power in France by increasing its installed capacity to 772MW.

Boralex president and CEO Patrick Lemaire said: "This transaction is very strategic and beneficial for Boralex and will strengthen our position as France's largest independent producer of onshore wind power and allow us to take full advantage of our unique and integrated model as developer, prime contractor and operator of our projects.

“Boralex will enjoy a number of operational synergies and significantly improve its growth prospects in light of the very ambitious renewable energy development goals set by the French government."

Globally, the company will grow its total installed capacity by more than 11%, from 1,456MW to 1,619MW through the addition of the Kallista Energy assets.

In Europe, Boralex will expand its portfolio of potential projects to nearly 1GW after completion of the transaction.

Kallista Energy was created in 2006 and five years later, it was 100% acquired by Ardian.

Kallista Energy Investment president Frédéric Roche said: “We are particularly satisfied to have partnered with Ardian in the consolidation of the wind sector in France. We have developed a strong relationship with the Ardian team, which has brought invaluable support specifically in the execution of complex transactions.

“Looking ahead, we are fully confident in Boralex’s ability to build the next chapter of Kallista Energy Investment’s history.”

The acquisition is likely to be completed by June, subject to regulatory approvals and meeting of customary closing conditions.
United States energy developer Invenergy files for arbitration against Poland with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law over a dispute following construction of four wind power projects in the country. Invenergy claims Polish authorities are ignoring binding rulings by local courts.