Most states supported, at the meeting of the Council of Energy Ministers, the idea that we need as many interconnections as possible, as quickly as possible, and Bulgaria and Greece requested that we be able to activate certain protection mechanisms for the final consumer and, eventually, a tax on producers inframarginal, the Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja, told Agerpres on Wednesday.
“At the table of the Council of Ministers, most states openly supported the idea of Romania and Greece and Bulgaria that we need more interconnections and as soon as possible. The big problem is that they cannot be done overnight on the other hand, like any infrastructure projects, as we can see, after 30 years in which nothing much was done, and then, in the short term, the Greeks and Bulgarians asked to be able to activate certain mechanisms for the protection of the final consumer and, possibly, with a tax on the inframarginal producers, i.e. those who enjoy exceptional profits.(…) Then such a support scheme can be further fueled by the taxation of these profits, which is not possible under the current European legislation allowed, as Romania is also, as we know, in an infringement case. In fact, in two cases,” explained Burduja.
He added that it was requested that, at the moment when it is found that the market is decoupled and we pay six, eight, ten times more than the states in Western Europe, this kind of mechanism should be exceptionally allowed, because the current European legislation allows targeted protection of the final consumer.
“But why are you fueling this protection scheme? Normally, all of the energy sector should, through this taxation, without affecting the investment prospects and the investment potential of low-cost producers,” the minister pointed out.
Sebastian Burduja participated on Tuesday in the Meeting of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council, in Luxembourg.
He wrote on Wednesday, on his Facebook page, that he proposed at the meeting a strict monitoring by the European Commission of the capacity of cross-border flows in transit countries, where there are lines, but they are only used to a small extent, and a coordination of the works of maintenance that can suddenly block certain interconnections, which leads to a massive increase in prices.
In the context in which, according to the Romanian official, energy prices in Eastern Europe have been, for several months, much higher than those in Western Europe, other solutions advanced by him refer to the acceleration of investments in new interconnections and exceptional measures on short term to protect European citizens and member states’ economies.