Bulgaria's top court cleared the way on Wednesday for German airport operator Fraport to sign 35-year concession to run and modernise two Black Sea airports, officials said.
The Supreme Administrative court said French company Vinci had no right to appeal a government decision to pick Fraport to run the airports at the cities of Varna and Bourgas - the main gateway to booming Black Sea tourist resorts.
"There are no more legal challenges to the government's decision," the court's spokeswoman said. The decision of the court is final and cannot be appealed. Bulgaria, which hopes to join the European Union next year, said it will now launch talks with Fraport and seal a deal in September as the two outdated terminals need urgent overhaul and expansion to met increased inflows of tourists.
The two airports, which lie 130 km (81 miles) apart on the Black Sea, handled around 2.0 million passengers each last year and are expected to benefit from an expected rise in tourism once the Balkan country joins the EU.
"We will now have to meet with Fraport and start negotiations on the concession contract that have to be signed in one month," said Valia Luleva, spokeswoman for the transport ministry.
The court ruled that the appeal of French consortium of Vinci Concessions and Vinci Airports had no legal grounds to appeal against the decision in favour of Fraport, because it had been excluded from the tender at an earlier stage. The court said the government's decision to exclude Vinci was not a matter for the court and any further appeals were inadmissible.
The government chose Fraport for the concession deal in June after a tender commission decided it was the only eligible bidder. It has pledged to invest 176 million euros through 2009 and a total of 403 million euros to overhaul the two airports for 35 years and pay an annual fee of 19.2 percent either of airport taxes or of airport concession revenue.
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