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Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca told a Thursday's press conference held in Targu Mures that he paid a visit to the most important producer of fertilizers for agriculture in Romania, Azomures, wishing to find out which company has not yet resumed production.
"It is clear that the discussions are related to the competitiveness of the products, which is closely dependent on the price of gas. I promised that depending on the technical discussions that we will continue to have both with you and with the gas producers in our country - because we cannot take a unilateral measure just for one producer - we have to see how we do it in such a way that the decision we will take is applied to all the big consumers, both of gas and energy", stated Ciucz.
The Prime Minister said that since the possible state aid must be agreed with the European Commission, he could not give the Azomures management any concrete answer.
"That's precisely why we couldn't give an answer today, because the most handy tool for the Government would be the granting of state aid. It's just that these state aid must be agreed and approved together with the European Commission, and until the moment that we don't have this aspect clarified, we can't promise anything at all", Nicolae Ciuca said.
The spokesperson for Azomures, Ovidiu Maior, said that the plant's representatives had a detailed discussion with the prime minister and that the dialogue will continue.
Last year, the largest producer of agricultural fertilizers in Romania, Azomures, operated for two months, after, in mid-December 2021, it decided to stop the installations on the platform, due to the high price of energy.
The annual production of Azomures, under normal operating conditions, is 1.6 million tonnes of fertilizers, and approximately 75% of this production was intended for Romanian farms. AGERPRES
