Romania To Grant EUR575M State Aid By 2012 To Investors Creating Over 500 Jobs

To receive state aid, investors must undertake to keep the investment in the respective region for at least five years, people close to the matter told MEDIAFAX, citing a draft normative act to be presented to the government for approval in the upcoming period.

The sources said eligible investments must create at least 500 new jobs, the invested value should exceed the equivalent in Romanian lei of EUR100 million and the value of eligible costs is of at least EUR50 million.

"Investments in fishing, aquaculture, the coal industry, transport, shipyards, textiles included in Anne 1 of the Treaty Establishing the European Community are excluded form this state aid scheme, recently approved by the European Commission,” the sources said.

State aid exceeding EUR30 million for the Bucharest-Ilfov region or EUR37.5 million for any of the country’s other regions will be referred to the European Commission individually.

The maximum estimated number of state aid beneficiaries for the next five years s twenty companies.

Romania’s Economy and Finance Ministry said Monday it expects by Oct 14 applications for non-reimbursable funds worth a total 215 million lei (EUR1=RON3.5794) from large companies seeking to expand production capabilities.

Eligible projects include investments in production capabilities, preparations in view of market competition, construction or upgrade of production units, purchasing new equipment, technologies and know how, products and services upgrades, the ministry said.

Eligible companies are those that employ over 250 people, companies that post revenues exceeding EUR50 million annually or have total assets of over EUR43 million.