Ministry of Energy has paid more than 130 million euro to large energy consumers, an amount related to last year’s state aid scheme for the payment of bills, according to a ministry statement.

“We will have a good winter. The state aid scheme for energy intensives has been finalized, and the big employers have received money to be able to support their activity. As I said before, with this financial aid we support 15 branches of the Romanian industry. About producers who have direct and horizontal employees of over 100,000 employees. At the same time, this scheme avoids the risk of relocation of companies that contribute to the Romanian economy. I would like to remind you that we do not offer support only to large energy consumers. It also benefits SMEs, but also household consumers, and the measures are provided for in Law No. 259/2021. We are in talks with the European Commission to extend the state aid scheme provided by GEO no. 81 to further support energy-intensive companies,” said Virgil Popescu, Minister of Energy, according to Agerpres.

The amount paid in 2021 in the form of state aid for 2020 is of 637.6 million lei, the equivalent of 131.8 million euro at the average reference rate for 2020 of 4.8371 lei/euro;

The total number of companies that benefited from state aid according to GEO no. 81/2019 is of 33, all with 100% private capital, of which 12 limited liability companies and 21 joint stock companies.

The number of companies whose application for financing was rejected is three, because they did not meet the cumulative conditions imposed by GEO 81/2019 during the implementation period.