Over the last year, energy prices have increased by around 20-25% and are expected to continue increasing over winter due to Romania needing to import to cover the country’s consumption.
Prime minister Florin Cîțu informed that the Romanian government will not intervene and cap the energy price, but instead, Romania needs energy independence, following a meeting which took place on August 31st 2021.
He has informed that the Government will take the “toughest measures” if they discover that state-owned energy producers are inefficient and result in the higher energy prices paid by consumers across the country.
Quoted by News.ro, he said “I can tell you right away that we will not intervene to cap prices. Just to be very clear”. He continued by saying, “At our previous meeting, I understood the major problem we are facing now – rising prices everywhere in the European Union. At the same time, I understood that we have another problem: we have to import energy because we don’t produce enough to cover our needs. It’s clear that Romania needs energy independence.”
During that meeting, Energy Minister, Virgin Popescu, announced that the Government would begin compensating the higher energy bills for Romanians with an average income and average energy consumption, starting from November 1st, 2021, through March 31st, 2022.
He mentioned that the funds used to compensate energy bills, will come from tax paid by gas producers for their extra gains from the gas market liberalization and from dividends received by the Government from state-owned energy companies such as Hidroelectrica, which is the country’s largest electricity producer.
