Decisión nº: 000010

In October 1989 the1971 Fund Executive Committee noted that during negotiations between the Director and the USSR authorities, the Estonian State Committee for Environmental Protection & Forestry had maintained its claim for damage to the marine environment, in respect of which the amount claimed had been arrived at by the application of a formula in accordance with Soviet law and which therefore had to be applied by the USSR courts. The Committee drew attention to the opinion of the 1971 Fund Assembly, expressed at its 11th session, that a uniform interpretation of the definition of pollution damage was essential for the functioning of the compensation regime. The Committee opined that, whilst it could intervene in the Court proceedings in Riga in order to challenge the claim, it would raise a number of complex legal issues, would be very costly and would have limited financial consequences for the Fund in the event that the Court were to accept the claim. The Committee decided that the Fund should not intervene in the Court proceedings, but instructed the Director to inform the Court, in an appropriate way, of the Fund’s position in respect of the claim and, in particular, of the principles embodied in Resolution No 3 adopted by the Assembly in 1980.