USR: Virgil Popescu should have been replaced long ago as Minister of Energy

Virgil Popescu should have been replaced long ago as Minister of Energy, Save Romania Union (USR) Acting Chairman Catalin Drula told Parliament on Monday, in a press statement at the end of the USR National Bureau meeting, Agerpres reports.

"We need gas, electricity, promoting the market. Instead, they come up with a scheme wrong from the start, which caps the manufacturer, that is, even if someone wants to enter the market, if you put the price-current at producer price, it discourages investments. They have politicized from top to bottom these companies that should produce for Romania. This is a man who should have left a long time ago and he is not the only one in this government," said Catalin Drula.

USR is summoning Minister of Energy Virgil Popescu again in Parliament, Drula added, adding that USR will submit a request to this effect with the Standing Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies and estimated that the minister will have to come to Parliament next week.

"In terms of energy - a disaster, concerning fuel, a disaster, concerning gas, a disaster as regards electricity. We will summon Virgil Popescu back in Parliament. Virgil Popescu is the Minister of Energy for the third year. Generally, we are talking about these government ministers having been in office for three months. In Virgil Popescu's case, we are talking about three years in which he has not been able to pass the offshore law. He should have found a simple, correct taxation formula to stimulate investments and allow us to extract the gas. We have been hearing for at least three years that the power plant in Iernut (central Mures County, ed. n.) is supposed to be finished. We have 10 billion euros for which he does not have the user guides for investments in energy production," Drula said.

On the other hand, Catalin Drula criticized the coalition leaders, Florin Citu (National Liberal Party leader - ed.n) and Marcel Ciolacu (Social Democratic Party leader - ed.n.), for sending opposition messages, instead of offering solutions to problems, in the context in which they assumed the government. In this regard, he said that the coalition leaders would represent an "opposition group to the Ciuca government".

"If you assumed the government - and they promised us to accomplish a 70 percent government - then you cannot come and not have solutions every day and attack the government. Take it down, appoint another prime minister, change the ministers or leave the government, if you are capable," Drula further affirmed.