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The opposition Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) criticizes the measures announced by Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca in a bid to shield consumers from high energy bills and considers that the short-term solution to reduce household and company bills is the immediate return to the regulated market and the adoption of measures to increase the production capacities and enhance competition in the energy market in the medium and long term.
"Liberalization in any field makes sense when there is real competition in the market. For this to happen on the Romanian energy market, investments are needed in the exploitation of the Black Sea gas, the completion of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant reactors 3 and 4 and of other power capacities in various completion stages, as well as kicking off investments in new such facilities. This will take years or decades, but it should start as soon as possible. The timeliness of liberalization can only be raised for discussion when supply exceeds domestic demand. Until then, the right solution for Romania's population and economy is to return to regulated prices," AUR Co-Chairman Claudiu Tirziu said in a release on Wednesday.
According to Alliance Co-Chairman George Simion, about 70 percent of the profits made on the energy market go into the state coffers.
"Any compensation scheme actually transfers the money from one pocket to another, disguising the fact that the state and the companies it controls make huge profits at the expense of the population and private companies. The compensation scheme moves money from the state budget to state-owned energy companies which pay boards packed with Social Democrat and Liberal politicians," Simion said in the cited release.
