Loading…
Loading…
The European Commission opened case references FSP.100148 (ENEVO/LONGi) and FSP.100149 (Shanghai Electric) on 3 April 2024, invoking Articles 26–29 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2560 (FSR). The contracting authority was Societatea Parc Fotovoltaic Rovinari EST S.A., a Romanian entity procuring design-build-operate services for a 454.97 MW photovoltaic park partly financed by the European Union (likely via PNRR or Cohesion Policy instruments).
ENEVO/LONGi investigation: LONGi Solar Technologie GmbH is a newly established German subsidiary wholly owned and controlled by LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (HK-listed private company). The Commission found prima facie evidence that the consortium received foreign financial contributions — including government grants, tax refunds, fiscal incentives, and subsidised financing — that may have enabled it to submit an unduly advantageous bid.
Shanghai Electric investigation: Shanghai Electric UK Co. Ltd. and Shanghai Electric Hong Kong International Engineering Co., Ltd. are subsidiaries of Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd., a Chinese state-owned enterprise under the Shanghai SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission). The Commission established that the group received foreign financial contributions of approximately €546 million across loans, grants, and fiscal incentives in the three years prior to the notification.
Withdrawal outcome: Both consortia announced withdrawal from the Romanian procurement procedure following the Commission's opening decisions. Commissioner Breton confirmed via STATEMENT/24/2570 that the Commission closed both in-depth investigations as a consequence of the withdrawals, consistent with Article 33 FSR (closure following withdrawal from a procurement procedure).
This action establishes several enforcement-track firsts within the FSR architecture:
1. First FSR Phase II in the renewable-energy / solar-PV sector — prior Phase II actions covered rail (CRRC/Bulgaria, Feb 2024). This extends enforcement into EU-co-funded PV infrastructure procurement, a much larger annual procurement surface.
2. First FSR case targeting a private Chinese-listed company's EU subsidiary — LONGi Green Energy is not an SOE. This confirms FSR scope over non-state-owned Chinese companies operating through EU subsidiary structures, not just canonical SOE respondents (CRRC, Shanghai Electric, Nuctech, Goldwind).
3. Parallel multi-respondent same-procurement opening — the Commission opened two simultaneous investigations against distinct respondents in the same procurement procedure, a pattern not replicated in subsequent FSR cases and a procedural template for complex multi-bid tenders.
4. EU-funded Member State procurement context — the Rovinari Est project is EU-co-funded, directly engaging the FSR's Article 26 threshold for notifiable foreign-subsidised bids in EU-supported projects (>€250M contract value; >€4M in foreign financial contributions per bidder per three-year window).
5. Cited in China MOFCOM TIB retaliation — the Apr 2024 LONGi/Shanghai Electric withdrawal was cited alongside the CRRC Bulgaria case in the China MOFCOM Trade Investigation Bureau's Final Determination (filed at 2025-01-09-china-mofcom-tib-eu-fsr-final-determination) as a source-of-injury justifying retaliatory measures. This makes the case structurally load-bearing for the EU–CN FSR escalation arc.
ex officio investigation (Feb 2026, filed at 2026-02-03-eu-fsr-goldwind-indepth-investigation) extended into wind-OEM procurement.
States + industry groups — the LONGi withdrawal is cited as policy validation.
not one-off actions: any Chinese solar-PV or wind-OEM bidder on a PNRR/Cohesion-funded contract now faces Phase II notification risk if foreign financial contributions exceed the FSR thresholds.
group subsequently pivoted toward module-supply-only contracts (not subject to FSR public-procurement notification) rather than EPC-contractor roles.
been published; the Commission press release confirms the FSR thresholds were met without specifying the contract sum.
published on the DG COMP FSR case portal is unclear — prior withdrawal-outcome cases (CRRC Bulgaria) had full decision text published; Rovinari Est closure decisions have not been published as of filing date.