<MfD> MF claims that Čunek violated the law in the ECE developer case</MfD>

Liberec - A non-public report from the Ministry of Finance (MF) states that the authorities and outgoing Minister for Regional Development Jiří Čunek violated the law when deciding on the construction of a shopping center in Liberec by the German firm ECE. This is reported by today's Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD), which has the report available. The ECE company is demanding almost 1.5 billion crowns for the thwarted investment.
    "It cannot be said that a potential arbitration was already lost; we do have some aces up our sleeves. However, the Czech Republic is not in the best position," said an MF source.
    The MF will now begin negotiations with ECE to settle the dispute. According to MfD's information, they want the German giant to accept a reasonable out-of-court settlement from the state.
    The entire dispute began with an appeal from the Dutch company Multi Development against the original zoning decision, and the Czech authorities gradually blocked the entire ECE construction. Multi Development is also building a shopping center in Liberec, directly opposite the ECE construction. While the shopping center Forum by Multi Development will welcome its first customers next month, at the site of the future Galerie Liberec by ECE Projektmanagement, there is still just a huge hole in the ground.
    The Liberec region definitively ruled that Multi Development has no right to enter the proceedings; however, the Ministry for Regional Development then took over the case. Its officials ruled otherwise. The appeal commission of the same ministry later sided with the Liberec region.
    However, outgoing Minister Čunek, according to earlier information from the Aktuálně.cz server, initially did not follow the commission's recommendations. The dispute had to be re-examined by the appeal commission to reaffirm its previous conclusion. Only last December did Čunek finally rule in favor of ECE. However, the German developer lost patience in November and initiated arbitration with the Czech Republic. According to previous statements from the Ministry for Regional Development, which CTK has at its disposal, neither the ministry nor the minister interfered with the rights of the builder. This was done by the Magistrate of the City of Liberec, the statement says.