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Social Democratic Party (PSD) Chairman Marcel Ciolacu has stated that a bill to cap basic food prices will be advanced after a discussion with hypermarkets and producers and will involve compensation and not forcing producers to sell below the price of production.
"It is not the price of energy production that has gone up, but it is the price of energy, which is totally wrong. That is the cause. We have all seen the effects in both inflation as well as in fuel and food prices. When we talk about capping, it automatically means there is offsetting. When we talked about capping on basic foodstuffs, this does not mean that we oblige producers (...) to sell below the production price. That means that the Romanian state, as in these two months when we capped the price of energy, intervenes and subsidizes part of this price. We have seen some politicians claim that something bad happened and we are killing the producers. I said we would come up with such a bill after we talked to both the hypermarkets and the producers. I had the discussion with the prime minister (...) to create these working groups and then the relevant minister to come to the coalition to present the proposals and to make a political decision. I believe this a constitutional and normal approach and we all want it," Ciolacu said at Parliament on Tuesday.
He explained that in the case of capping food prices, the same principle would apply as in the case of energy prices.
"We will force the producer to sell at a price. (...). A coalition meeting was scheduled for today, which was postponed because no solution was found," Ciolacu said, Agerpres.ro informs.
The PSD head mentioned that he wants the Minister of Energy to come up with some solutions as of April, because the price of energy for February and March is "covered".
"There is also a proposal to extend these measures for the next two months, which is not bad and during this time legal steps will be taken with ANRE [energy regulator]," added Ciolacu.
