Romania’s rail freight company CFR Marfa paid only half of the wages to its 7,000 employees on May 15 after the railway infrastructure company CFR again froze its accounts in an attempt to recover part of the claims estimated at well above €100mn, economica.net reported.

A publicly funded bailout for the company would be problematic. Last December, the European Commission said it had already opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether debt write-offs by the Romanian state in favour of CFR Marfa and the failure to collect debts from the company have given the company an unfair advantage in breach of EU state aid rules.

CFR Marfa proposed that CFR restructure its debt, but the latter has refused all the options, the news service reported quoting unofficial sources.

CFR has reportedly recovered some RON20mn (€4.3mn) by freezing and executing CFR Marfa’s accounts this month. The volume of claims was estimated in March at some RON835mn, though. Out of this, CFR notified in court, with a view of recovering the money, some RON650mn and the execution of judgment was initiated for RON370mn. In its turn, CFR Marfa holds claims against its clients worth RON350mn with state-controlled companies (apparently mainly coal mines) holding the bulk of the claims.

Trade unions representing CFR Marfa workers appealed at the end of March to President Klaus Iohannis to help the company.