Fleming said Ford worked hard to complete this privatization and the company would have never proposed something that would come against the law. The company official said one of the conditions imposed by Ford was that it wanted to buy Automobile Craiova freed of any debts. Ford paid 57 million euros for 72.4 percent of the company’s shares, in September this year.
EC decided to launch an investigation on the possible state aid granted by Romania to Automobile Craiova. The EU body issued an order asking Romania to suspend any state aid that was not notified to the authorities in Brussels.
EC started last month to investigate a possible violation of the laws regarding state aid in the sell-off case of Automobile Craiova to U.S. automaker Ford Motor Company. This was the third time EC decided to investigate a privatization case in Romania.
EC supports Romania's privatization policy, yet it need to make sure the process is transparent, without illegal state aids, Todd said. “Illegal state aids” refer to any aid that was granted without EC's prior notification.
Romanian government endorsed a special law for selling the company which wrote off the plant's debts, both to the state and coming from contracts of former owner, Daewoo. EC voiced concern over the conditioned auction which might had led to a smaller price involving, therefore, a state aid. The conditions referred to maintaining a certain level of production so the allegedly aid could support the plant.
Source: Newsin
