The Bucharest Court rejected the appeal filed by Dutch shipbuilding group Damen, after the Romanian Defense Ministry (MApN) awarded the contract for four multifunctional corvettes to the Naval Group of France and local Constanta Naval Shipyard. The decision is not final and Damen already announced it would challenge it.

“At this moment, we are waiting for the court to motivate the decision. Even so [without the motivation], the decision includes some fundamental points, favorable to Damen, which we will develop in the appeal,” Damen announced in a statement, local Hotnews.ro reported. 

The Court said it dismissed, among others, the objection raised by Damen in regard to the appointment of the committee that evaluated the offers.

Naval Group (France), Damen (Netherlands) and Fincantieri (Italy) competed in the tender organized by the Romanian state for the contract, initially estimated at EUR 1.6 billion. Romtehnica, the state company that organized the tender to buy four multirole corvettes for the Navy, notified the association between the French Naval Group and Constanţa Naval Shipyard that it has won the tender on July 2. According to information circulated by media and partly confirmed by defence minister Gabriel Leş, Naval Group submitted a bid of EUR 1.2 billion, the other offers being higher: EUR 1.25 billion (Damen) and EUR 1.34 billion (Fincantieri).

editor@romania-insider.com