BRUSSELS: July 31, 2019. The European Commission has approved Romania's plans to grant €27.4 million investment aid to the Port of Galați, the largest sea-river port in the country.

The total investment is €89.9 million co-financed by the Romanian State, private investors and the Connecting Europe Facility, a key EU funding instrument.

The project consists of building a new multimodal platform with a capacity of 150,000 TEU a year in an area called Port Bazinul Nou, including quay upgrades and building the required infrastructure to support an intermodal terminal.

The EC says the newly-created logistic node will promote a shift from road to railway and inland waterways/maritime transport on the Rhine-Danube Trans-European Transport corridor, fulfilling an objective of EU common interest.

The Commission noted the aid "was necessary, proportionate and that the distortion of competition will be limited", given the relatively small-to-medium size of the Port of Galați.

According to EC traffic forecasts, the slight capacity increase created by the project would be offset by the increase in demand, mainly stemming from other road-based flows transport routes in the Rhine-Danube region. As a result, the Commission concluded that the investment aid is compatible with EU rules, which allow state aid for the development of certain economic activities - provided it does not "unduly affect trade and competition" in the Single Market.