PSD's Ciolacu: We have completed package of measures on energy prices

PSD (Social Democratic Party) leader Marcel Ciolacu said on Monday that the package of measures on electricity and gas prices is ready, and these measures will be discussed in the coalition meeting at 5.00 pm.

"We have completed the package of measures, on all three components, so as to stop this escalation of prices, to reduce the bills for both the population and the economy and, last but not least, to try to compensate from the state budget, as much as possible, so that it does not affect the investment area and what we have proposed for this year. We have these measures that we are going to discuss again at 10.00 am, with the members of the Government from PSD, with the National Standing Bureau and also, at 5.00 pm, at the coalition level. I discussed the matter with the Prime Minister and with PNL (National Liberal Party) leader Citu yesterday, and it went well so far," Ciolacu said at the PSD headquarters, before the meeting of the party's National Standing Bureau.

He added that the reduction of VAT from 19pct to 5pct on electricity and gas "is bearable by the state budget" and that he maintains that this measure should be applied starting February 1.

"There are many options, including seeing what happened in France with the price cap, with the cap on energy prices at state-owned companies, at the largest state-owned company, and this is a measure that we could take. (...) There are more measures and they are coherent with each other. The Minister of Energy and the representatives of ANRE and ANPC are also invited to the coalition meeting," he said.

Ciolacu also said that the whole of Europe is affected by the increase in energy prices and does not consider it important now to find a culprit for this in Romania.