The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) demands the “immediate” dismissal of the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, for the “unjustifiably” high rise in energy prices, claiming that “a 70% government majority has all the legal, constitutional and political levers to intervene quickly in support of the Romanian population and economy.”

“Beyond the international energy context, the main cause that generated the increase in energy prices in Romania is the liberalization made without competitive market conditions. Since over 80% of energy production is domestic, most of it is below direct control of the state, and production costs have risen only to a very small extent, there is no justification for raising prices by up to 10 times. These unjustifiably high prices are a direct attack on the pockets of the citizens and companies in Romania, carried out with the wide contribution of the state authorities that allowed this. For this reason, the Minister of Energy Virgil Popescu must be dismissed immediately,” AUR said on Friday, according to a press release quoted by Agerpres.

At the same time, AUR proposes to the Government a set of measures to protect the economy and the population from the effects of the energy crisis such as the “immediate” return to regulated energy prices and capping the final price paid by the consumer, until there are conditions for real competition.

“ANRE may impose a regulated price that covers production costs and a single-digit profit margin that exceeds the inflation rate by 1 or 2 percentage points,” AUR explained.

Investing in new energy production capacity is another measure proposed by AUR. “Instead of using public resources for various bill clearing schemes, it is preferable for the state to invest in new energy targets: reactors 3 and 4 at Cernavoda, completion of the Iernut power plant, etc,” the statement said.

According to AUR, compensation schemes should be phased out because “they are a disguised way to maintain the huge profits of ‘wise guys’ from the energy field.”