The regional court in Czechia’s second-largest city, Brno, has rejected the lawsuit of the French Électricité de France (EDF) filed against the previous ruling of the Czech antitrust office ÚOHS, which turned down EDF’s complaints against the selection of the South Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) in the major €16bn Dukovany nuclear power plant (NPP) project.

The court upheld the use exemption of the Dukovany tender from the public procurement rules on the security ground, and Judge Jan Čížek noted that the goal was “to rule out any interference […] in the selection of the supplier and to protect the security interests of the state,” in a ruling statement shared by Czech Television (CT) and other media.  

Čížek also stated that transparency and discrimination rules were not breached in the tender, in which the Czech side picked KHNP over EDF the US Westinghouse last year.

EDF can still appeal the ruling, and the Czechs and KHNP have already signed the contract on June 4 after the Czech Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) removed the blocking of it by a preliminary measure issued by the Brno court last month ahead of its ruling.

The Czechs rushed in to sign the contract with KHNP amid speculations about enduring legal battles, and while the KHNP offer was still valid before the end of June.  

EDU II, the joint venture of the Czech state and the majority state-owned energy utility ČEZ, and the Czech Prime Minister, Petr Fiala, who is a strong backer of the Dukovany enhancement project, welcomed the Brno court ruling.

“It shows we were right. We have been convinced the whole time we proceeded in a correct way,” Fiala was quoted as saying by CT, reiterating that the project will be successful despite delays.

The sitting centre-right cabinet expects the project, set to become the largest investment in Czechia’s history, to be completed in 2036.  

In a separate development, Czech media reported that the European Commission is conducting a preliminary review of the Dukovany tender, including a potential breach of the EU’s foreign subsidy rules.  

Last month, European Vice President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy Stéphane Séjourné also requested from Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Lukáš Vlček that the Czech side wait to sign the Dukovany contract with KHNP.

Last summer, ČEZ, which is responsible for the tender, recommended that the Czech government pick KHNP as the contractor for the building of two nuclear units at Dukovany, with potentially another two units at the younger Temelín NPP to be built later. ČEZ has already spent CZK3.6bn (€141mn) on preparatory works.

As per media reports, EDF also objected to the lack of transparency in the contract proceedings, which were exempted from public tender on security grounds. EDF’s lawsuit came after the country’s antitrust office, ÚOHS, turned down the complaint filed by EDF against the selection of KHNP in its final ruling.