The European Commission (EC) has announced in a communiqué that it is investigating the conversion of a EUR 135 M debt into shares and the EUR 339.2 M state guarantee that the Government plans to authorize in order to support the Oltchim plant. The EC argues that it has doubts regarding these measures’ compatibility with state aid norms. Thus, the European officials have opened an in-depth investigation. The European norms on state aid provision that the public authorities’ intervention within companies does not constitute state aid if it takes place in conditions that a private company active on the market would have accepted. The EU competition watchdog did not specify a timeframe for its investigation.
