European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has announced that the Community Executive has opened a new investigation into the subsidies benefited by Chinese manufacturers of wind turbines, which are intended for a series of wind farms built in Europe, including in Romania, reports Reuters.

“Today, we are launching a new investigation into Chinese suppliers of wind turbines. We are investigating the conditions for the development of wind farms in Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria,” said Margrethe Vestager, in a speech delivered at Princeton University in the USA. In this speech, Margrethe Vestager did not reveal the identity of the targeted Chinese companies, according to Agerpres.

In response, a body representing the interests of Chinese companies in Brussels expressed its “deep dissatisfaction” with what it described as protectionism and a lack of transparency on the part of the EU, as it introduces new rules designed to counter state aid which foreign companies benefit from. “This action sends a negative signal globally, suggesting discrimination against Chinese companies and supporting protectionism,” the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the European Union claims.

The EU executive is already investigating whether tariffs are being imposed on Chinese imports of electric cars and claims evidence it has gathered that Chinese manufacturers have benefited from state aid.

In the speech held on Tuesday, Vestager said that the EU needs to adopt a more systemic approach, given that it currently follows a policy where investigations are started on a case-by-case basis, so that the EU bloc solves a problem in a sector for that immediately problems arise in another sector. “And we have to do it before it’s too late. We can’t see what happened with photovoltaic panels happening again with electric vehicles, wind turbines or essential chips,” added the European commissioner.

The new investigation comes a week after Brussels launched two in-depth investigations into the potential market distorting role of foreign subsidies granted to bidders in a public procurement procedure in Romania. According to the Commission, two Chinese bidders benefited from significant state subsidies that allowed them to offer lower prices in the tender procedure organized by a Romanian contracting authority (Societeatea PARC fotovoltaic Rovinari Est S.A.) for the design, construction and operation of a photovoltaic park in Romania, with an installed capacity of 110 MW. This project is partially financed from the EU Modernization Fund.