With approximately three months before the expiration of the energy price cap-compensation scheme, Romania must accelerate efforts to identify and prepare measures to protect vulnerable consumers. In this context, the Romanian Energy Poverty Observatory considers that the announced merger of the Ministry of Energy with the Ministry of Economy is an untimely decision and could have negative consequences on the efforts of energy transition and combating energy poverty, European objectives assumed by our country.
Romania has one of the highest rates of energy poverty in the European Union, so combating this phenomenon must remain a priority on the Government’s agenda. One of the major risks of disbanding the Ministry of Energy is that this serious social problem becomes secondary.
The discussion on the merger of the Ministry of Energy with the Ministry of Economy coincides with the launch of the Interministerial Committee for the Protection of Vulnerable Consumers and Combating Energy Poverty, a committee formed at the initiative of the Ministry of Energy and established by Decision of the Government of Romania 380/2024.
ORSE considers that the existence of the Interministerial Committee for the Protection of Vulnerable Consumers and Combating Energy Poverty represents a good practice in this regard. Its activity is essential for the development of well-integrated public policies, which allow for the most precise identification of the categories affected by energy poverty or in a situation of energy vulnerability.
The Ministry of Energy, together with this committee, is now in a position to manage the expiration of the energy price capping and compensation scheme on March 31, 2025 and to create a mechanism that will enter into force immediately after this deadline. In this sense, the potential merger of the Ministry of Energy with the Ministry of Economy will specifically and decisively affect the chances of achieving this mechanism, with concrete economic effects. We recall the budgetary impact that the prospect of continuing the cap-and-compensation scheme could have, especially given that the European Commission has already initiated the infringement procedure against Romania starting with October 2024.
ORSE has repeatedly drawn attention, since the first national report on this topic, launched in 2017, to the need for coordinated, long-term action to combat energy poverty. Romania is in a critical, prolonged moment of vulnerability in the context of the volatility of energy markets, which has already had dramatic effects on the population during the 2021-2023 crisis. The Ministry of Energy has a key role in managing this moment.
The disappearance of this ministry may jeopardize the commitment of the future coalition to confirm Romania’s irreversible European path and to reduce the gaps in society, which have brought Romania to the brink of the abyss in terms of the quality of democracy.
We welcome the intention of the new pro-European coalition to reduce budgetary efforts by streamlining the administrative apparatus and validating the principle of a flexible and efficient state. At the same time, we believe that achieving this through the disappearance of the Ministry of Energy as an independent entity runs counter to the efforts to transition our country’s economy towards sustainability and energy performance under conditions of social equity. Romania’s energy priorities are paramount and have the role of creating a performing economic and social welfare environment.