PSD's Ciolacu: We are in major energy crisis, when state must bravely intervene

Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Marcel Ciolacu declared on Wednesday that the state must "bravely" intervene in order to establish measures for the population in the context of the current "major" energy crisis.

"It is obvious that we are in a major energy crisis, that not only hits home consumers, it hits the entire Romanian industry. It is not only Romania in this situation, it is the whole of Europe and not only, but we have also seen measures taken in the UK, where there has been a nationalisation, and in France, where state-owned companies were imposed ... We have established a two-month period, for the entire coalition, mainly the Government and the Minister of Energy, to come back, from April 1, with what will follow. I remain of the personal opinion that as of April 1 the price will have to be regulated. (...) For a period of six months, the law allows us to do this," said Ciolacu, at the Palace of Parliament.

Asked why PSD had given up its proposal to reduce VAT on electricity and natural gas, he said: "Because the solution found is a much better regulation and anyway it is a sufficiently large budgetary effort and, at least, the electricity bills for household consumers are almost the same as last year. In addition, we have expanded to SMEs and the entire food industry."

Ciolacu said that the measures established in the governing coalition regarding the prices of electricity and natural gas are sufficient for the next two months.

"High consumption occurs in winter, in the gas area. First of all, winter passes in these two months and I also understood from specialists that the price of gas is starting to be lower," said the PSD leader.

He was asked if ANRE had done its job lately and whether he would agree to have the leadership of the institution replaced, as requested by the Liberals.

"Nobody requested me to change the leadership. Let's see the truth. In my opinion, I think we have a big problem with those who erroneously, intentionally or unintentionally issued the 2,200,000 bills. I don't know if ANRE [National Energy Regulatory Authority] should follow the bills. Furthermore, they have been issued two months in a row, we have 4,400,000 wrongly issued bills. I think whoever is to blame should be sought there," concluded Marcel Ciolacu.