Three companies want to sue Romania on cancelled highway contract

French group Vinci, Austrian company Strabag, and Greek group Aktor want to sue the Romanian state for having cancelled the contract for building the Comarnic-Brasov highway, which the three companies had won. In June, Romania’s National Highway Company CNADNR cancelled the concession contract for the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the Comarnic-Brasov highway segment. The joint venture of Vinci, Strabag and Aktor won the contract in 2013, but the Romanian state has delayed the signing of the contract and finally cancelled it. CNADNR said that building the highway would have increased the budgetary deficit, and Romania risked breaking its commitments to the European Commission, IMF, and World Bank on the fiscal deficit target. This was the third failure in attributing the contract for the construction of the Comarnic-Brasov highway segment, after 2005 and 2010. editor@romania-insider.com