French Naval Group, the winner of the EUR 1.2bn contract for procurement of military multi-role corvettes, failed to sign the frame contract within the deadline, the Romanian Ministry of Defence announced.

The second-placed bidder, Damen, was not appointed to replace the French contractor because the funds necessary to declare the economic operator in the next place as the winner were "not identified," it said.

The Romanian state-owned company Romtehnica announced on July 2 that Naval Group and its local associate Constanţa Naval Shipyard had won a tender to build EUR 1.2bn worth of naval corvettes.

The multi-role corvettes were due to have been built for the Romanian navy at the Damen yard in Galaţi following a Government decision under former prime minister Dacian Ciolos in 2016, but this was eventually cancelled in March 2017 when new negotiations with possible suppliers were announced.

In July 2020, there were still three pending lawsuits to be settled before Romania's Government was entitled to sign the EUR 1.2bn procurement contract for military multi-role corvettes.

In October of the same year, PM Orban signed a new roadmap with his French counterpart, Jean Castex, on the strategic partnership between the two countries. Orban implied that the contract for the French military corvettes would be signed immediately after the court rejected the objections of the Dutch group Damen.

(Photo: Adrien Daste - Naval Group media center)

iulian@romania-insider.com