Elcen and Termoenergetica will go out of insolvency by the end of December, said the Minister of Public Finance, Florin Cîţu.

“After the change that the people of Bucharest wanted at the Bucharest City Hall, we found goodwill and openness at the general mayor of the Capital and together we found the procedural and financial solution to get out of insolvency. There are two mechanisms – art. 26 of the Ordinance 201/2020 and Ordinance 69/2020. One of the mechanisms – the swap for the outstanding debts of the territorial administrative units, was also in force at the previous rectification, but it was not taken into account. We found the solution, and a series of measures and several steps will follow that will lead to the exit from the insolvency of Elcen,” said the minister, according to Agerpres.

Elcen’s insolvency proceedings were opened on October 6, 2016, at the company’s request. At that time, the total receivables admitted to the credit table were of 2.2 billion lei, of which receivables of the Ministry of Finance and the National Agency for Fiscal Administration were in the amount of about one billion lei. The other significant creditors were state-owned companies and credit institutions.

Elcen’s reorganization plan was confirmed by the court on October 22, 2018, but it was subsequently amended because the planned funding sources did not materialize. The amended reorganization plan was confirmed by the court on July 9, 2020, with a deadline on October 22, 2022.

Florin Cîţu mentioned that during the insolvency Elcen did not meet the necessary conditions to obtain financing from non-reimbursable European funds, and those who threw “willingly and premeditatedly the company into insolvency” should pay.

“Here, too, is a problem. The fact that Elcen was deliberately thrown into this insolvency situation has forced this company to have no access to funding from European grants and someone will have to pay for it. Under these conditions, the necessary investments have not been made to maintain energy production capacity in a long-term, sustainable way. Here is an explanation why Elcen did not have the funds to make these investments. And I repeat: those who have Elcen pushed deliberately into insolvency are responsible for this and should pay,” the minister added.