Ciolacu says that another normative act on compensation of energy, gas bills should be drawn up

Social Democratic Party (PSD) Chairman Marcel Ciolacu said on Tuesday that another way to compensate energy and gas bills should be found in the governing coalition, because the current law is inefficient and cannot be implemented, Agerpres reports.

Asked on Antena 3 TV station if the governing coalition had found the right tool for Romanians to cope with rising electricity and gas prices, Ciolacu said: "We operate on a law proposed by the current minister, from my point of view inefficient. It cannot be implemented, the one with the capping and the offsetting of the bills.We should have a coalition meeting as soon as possible and come up with another normative act, either by ordinance, or have a special session in Parliament and come with it, both regarding individuals and Romanian companies, because they are no longer competitive at these prices. Everything is in a chain, because having no more production, no more exports, no more income, one reaches unemployment. I am glad that we managed to introduce from the beginning that social package that has a destination of almost 10 million Romanians and we anticipated in a way what will happen in January."

He added that a coalition meeting is needed for the Minister of Energy to attend and for another way of compensation to be found, which is much easier and more accessible to both companies and the population.

"I saw that in certain areas of Europe they were better prepared, you know that there was a development fund and there is one that Romania could have accessed two years ago. Only 10 states in Europe had access to this fund which was for the energy area. There are also Romanian companies; I would also like to know and have explanations from the director of Romgaz why he was not prepared for this crisis and why we do not have the extractions we expect from Romgaz. (...) When you accept to be a director at such a company, of such importance as Hidroelectrica, I also want to know the latest investments from Romgaz and Hidroelectrica. We also want to have this information. One month in government, we are still working and still working with the client's material," Ciolacu said.