Rail industry lodges complaint against Romania at EU Commission

The Romanian rail industry has had enough of it. The government’s plan to establish a new state rail freight operator is likely in breach of EU competition rules. Private rail association OPSFPR has now taken to the European Commission to lodge a formal complaint, as it would not be the first time Romania breaks these rules.

Romania plans to allocate over 300 million euros in funding to the newly established state rail operator Carpatica Feroviar. The company is supposed to take over from CFR Marfă, which was bankrupted after the European Commission found that it had been getting disproportionate amounts of state aid. Consequently, it had to pay over half a billion euros back within six months in 2020, but failed to do so.

Now, Romania is supposedly planning t…