Press Release: State aid: Commission conditionally approves training aid of up to €57 million to Ford Romania

The European Commission has authorised, subject to certain conditions, under EU rules on state aid, training aid up to €57 million planned by Romania in favour of Ford Romania SA. The aid supports the company's plan to offer an extensive training programme to its current and future employees at the Craiova car plant in Romania. The training programme covers a total of 9,000 employees over a period of five years. The overall cost of the training programme is of approximately €185 million, of which the company would finance approximately €128 million The Commission found the aid to be in line with EU rules on training aid because it is targeted at redressing a verified market failure - underinvestment in training and is appropriate as policy instrument. It has a demonstrated incentive effect and is limited in amount to covering respectively 50% of the eligible costs of general training, and 25% of the eligible costs of specific training. However, to ensure that the aid amount corresponds to training expenses effectively incurred, that distortions of competition are minimised and that employees benefit in full from the skills acquired through the training, the Commission imposed conditions regarding the payment of the aid and reporting and monitoring requirements.