The Ministry of Energy is awaiting the official communication of the European Commission regarding the elements signaled by the Community Executive in gas sector in order to start the dialogue, representatives of the ministry told AGERPRES on Thursday.
The European Commission has decided to send Romania a letter of formal notice for the failure to correctly enforce certain requirements of the Gas Directive (Directive 2009/73 / EC) and the Gas Safety Regulations (EU Regulation 2017/1938), informs a press release of the EU's Executive.
This is the first step in the infringement procedure. According to the EC, the two directives aim to ensure competitiveness on EU gas markets, while ensuring the safe supply of households and of other clients requiring special protection.
"After analyzing the legislative measures adopted by Romania in December 2018, the Commission found that the system of newly regulated wholesale prices on the Romanian gas market is contrary to the EU legal requirements. The Commission also considers that these measures are not adequate for achieving the sustainable goal of protecting household consumers against excessive price increases," says the EU Executive.
The Government in Bucharest decided in December 2018, through the Emergency Ordinance on fiscal-budgetary measures, to cap the gas price at 68 lei/MWh for the next three years for all household consumers. For industrial consumers the price will also be capped but it will be a mix of the price of 68 lei for industrial consumers, the import price and the storage cost.
The premier's economic advisor, Darius Valcov, said that the decision on natural gas price capping does not infringe the European regulations and that the Competition Law even recommends this because in Romania there is a situation of oligopoly, especially in the gas field.
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