April 4 (SeeNews) - The European Commission (EC) said it has launched two in-depth investigations relating to the potentially market distortive role of foreign subsidies given to two consortia in a public tender for the construction of a solar photovoltaic (PV) park with a planned installed capacity of 110 MW in Romania.
"The Commission will assess whether the economic operators concerned did benefit from an unfair advantage to win public contracts in the EU," the EU executive said in a statement on Wednesday. "In recent years, foreign subsidies appear to have distorted the EU's internal market, including by providing their recipients with an unfair advantage to acquire companies or obtain public procurement contracts in the EU to the detriment of fair competition."
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The tender for the solar plant project which is partially financed by the EU Modernisation Fund was launched by Romanian company Parc Fotovoltaic Rovinari Est. The company is jointly owned by Romania’s top oil and gas group OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP] and state-owned electricity producer Complexul Energetic Oltenia.
One of the investigated tie-ups comprises Romania-based engineering and consulting services provider Enevo Group, acting as coordinator of the consortium, and LONGi Solar Technologie GmbH, a German subsidiary of Chinese solar photovoltaic solutions supplier LONGi Green Energy Technology.
The second consortium under investigation is composed of Shanghai Electric UK Co. Ltd. and Shanghai Electric Hong Kong International Engineering Co. Ltd. Both companies are wholly owned and controlled by Shanghai Electric Group Co. Ltd.
The Commission launched the investigations following notifications by the two consortia that they had already been granted at least 4 million euro ($4.3 million) in foreign financial contributions from at least one third country in the prior three years. Such notifications are mandated under the EU's Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) when the estimated value of the tendered contract exceeds 250 million euro.
The FSR, which took effect at mid-2023, allows the Commission to address distortions caused by foreign subsidies in order to ensure a level playing field for all companies operating in the EU.
Last year, OMV Petrom booked a net profit of 4.03 billion lei, down from 10.3 billion lei in the previous year.
Austria's OMV Aktiengesellschaft holds a 51.157% stake in OMV Petrom. The Romanian economy ministry owns 20.698% and 28.145% is free float on the Bucharest bourse and the London Stock Exchange.
Blue-chip OMV Petrom's shares traded 1.04% higher at 0.679 lei as at 1035 CET on Thursday on the Bucharest bourse.
($=0.9286 euro)
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