German lawsuits against trusteeship of Russia's Rosneft on hold
The lawsuits against the trustee administration of the Russian oil company Rosneft's shares in the large PCK refinery in the German state of Brandenburg are currently on ice.
At the request of the parties involved, the proceedings for the first and second extension of the trusteeship have been put on hold, a spokeswoman for the Federal Administrative Court in the eastern city of Leipzig said on Thursday.
Rosneft has not yet filed a complaint against the third extension, which was announced on March 7.
Against the backdrop of the Russian war against Ukraine, the federal government effectively took control of Rosneft Deutschland and RN Refining & Marketing in September 2022 with the trusteeship.
The companies are majority owners of the important PCK refinery in Schwedt in Brandenburg to the north-east of Berlin and two other plants. The measure is limited to six months in each case and has since been extended three times.
The court spokeswoman said that the proceedings will now be suspended until the parties involved request a continuation.
The background to the applications to suspend the lawsuits is the discussion about a possible sale of the Rosneft shares. The German government hopes that Rosneft will withdraw from the refinery business in Germany and is pushing for the Russian state-owned company to sell its majority stake. The renewed extension of the trusteeship has bought six months of time.
A year ago, the Federal Administrative Court declared the first phase of the trusteeship order by the Federal Economy Ministry to be lawful and dismissed Rosneft's claims.
