Romania supports price cap on Russian gas, credit lines for companies from ECB

Romania supported, within the Energy Council, measures such as capping the price of Russian gas, creating a platform for the joint purchase of gas in the EU, as well as the possibility of accessing credit lines for companies from the European Central Bank, according to a press release of the Ministry of Energy, sent to AGERPRES on Friday.

Energy Minister Virgil Popescu on Friday participated in the extraordinary meeting of the Energy Council, organized in Brussels, in the context of discussions at the European level regarding high energy prices and preparation for winter.

The European Commission is working on a set of measures to cut down the high energy prices that will be included in a legislative proposal in the second part of September. During the meeting, the energy ministers analyzed and agreed on a common course of action regarding the future steps.

In previous meetings, Romania supported the need to adopt measures at the community level to decouple the price of electricity from that of natural gas, which currently sets the closing price of the market. A proposal from the European Commission is needed in this regard as soon as possible.

As for the supply of electricity, a possible measure to reduce consumption should be analyzed from the perspective of the impact on consumers and industry.

Also, the Minister of Energy supported the adoption at the European level of the model of decoupling the price of natural gas from that of electricity.

In addition, the Minister of Energy supported the proposal to have a coordinated reduction of the VAT applied to electricity sales at the European level, as well as to temporarily cap the price for transactions made on the day-ahead and the intraday Markets.

The measures proposed by Romania and other member states regarding the temporary capping of the price of natural gas including the imported one, limiting the impact of the price of natural gas on the price of electricity, capping the income of infra-marginal producers of electricity, protecting the companies affected by the crisis were reflected in the conclusions of the Council published by the Czech Presidency.

In the second part of the meeting, the energy ministers discussed the degree of preparation for winter 2022. The situation in Romania is stable. The filling level of the warehouses is over 76%, which exceeds the storage obligation that Romania had on September 1, 2022 (57%).

Internal production is currently the main source of supply. The continuation of gas extraction projects from the Black Sea represents a priority for Romania in ensuring independence from energy imports. Maintaining a diversified energy mix and making the energy transition towards sources with low carbon emissions are the objectives of the national energy strategy recently published by the Ministry of Energy.

For the winter of 2022 - 2023, the preparations made, the level of gas and coal deposits, as well as the recently adopted compensatory measures ensure security of supply for Romanian consumers. Romania relies on the capitalization of internal resources, increasing the share of energy from renewable and nuclear sources and the gradual replacement of coal, as elements to establish and long-term energy independence.