{"id":17504,"date":"2026-09-09T17:11:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/?p=17504"},"modified":"2026-09-09T17:11:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:11:43","slug":"singapore-high-court-enforces-intra-eu-icsid-award-against-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2026\/09\/09\/singapore-high-court-enforces-intra-eu-icsid-award-against-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Singapore High Court Enforces Intra-EU ICSID Award Against Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On February 24, 2026, the Singapore High Court in <em>NextEra Energy Global Holdings BV v Kingdom of Spain<\/em> [2026] SGHC 43 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nortonrosefulbright.com\/en\/knowledge\/publications\/4277a495\/singapore-high-court-enforces-ect-award-under-icsid-convention-rejecting-state\">dismissed<\/a> Spain&#8217;s application to set aside the registration of an <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips18'>ICSID<\/span> award rendered in favour of Dutch investors under the Energy Charter Treaty. The court <a href=\"https:\/\/jusmundi.com\/en\/document\/decision\/en-nextera-energy-global-holdings-b-v-and-nextera-energy-spain-holdings-b-v-v-kingdom-of-spain-judgment-of-the-high-court-of-singapore-2026-sghc-43-tuesday-24th-february-2026\">held<\/a> that accession to the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips1'>ICSID Convention<\/span> amounts to submission to the jurisdiction of Singapore&#8217;s courts for recognition purposes and an agreement in writing to arbitrate under Article 26 of the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips67'>ECT<\/span>. It <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acerislaw.com\/singapores-high-court-rejects-spains-state-immunity-defence-nextera-energy-v-spain-2026-sghc-43\/\">rejected<\/a> Spain&#8217;s intra-<span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips117'>EU<\/span> objection, reasoning that the primacy of EU law operates only within the EU legal order and does not bind Singapore courts, and that public policy is not a ground to resist enforcement of an ICSID award. The judgment follows the Singapore International Commercial Court&#8217;s decision in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.elitigation.sg\/gd\/s\/2026_SGHCI_1\">DNZ v DOA<\/a><\/em> upholding an ECT award against Poland. Singapore thereby joins the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia in a global consensus, giving stranded intra-EU award creditors an Asia-Pacific enforcement forum and further isolating the EU&#8217;s position internationally.<\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips1','Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips18','International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips63','Bilateral investment treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips72','Investment Court System'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips100','investissement direct \u00e9tranger'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips104','responsabilit\u00e9 sociale des entreprises'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips106','asociaci\u00f3n p\u00fablica-privada'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips117','European Union'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips118','Union europ\u00e9enne'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips119','Uni\u00f3n Europea'); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On February 24, 2026, the Singapore High Court in NextEra Energy Global Holdings BV v Kingdom of Spain [2026] SGHC 43 dismissed Spain&#8217;s application to set aside the registration of an <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips18'>ICSID<\/span> award rendered in favour of Dutch investors under the Energy Charter Treaty.<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips18','International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips72','Investment Court System'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips100','investissement direct \u00e9tranger'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips106','asociaci\u00f3n p\u00fablica-privada'); <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":17505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[1900],"class_list":["post-17504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-current-issue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17508,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17504\/revisions\/17508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}