The very firm commitment that the Ministry of Energy and the Government of Romania have taken is that, after April 1, 2025, we will protect all Romanians who cannot afford to pay their bills, and from my point of view I believe in a re – phased liberalization of the market, said the Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja.

“The good part is that we have time to prepare the market, from producers to the final customer. What happens after April 1? The very firm commitment that the Ministry of Energy and the Government of Romania have taken is that we will protect the final consumer, we will protect all Romanians who cannot afford to pay their bills. It is a matter of fairness in the current system and I have said it many times. It is a system as it could have been. It is not perfect. It doesn’t seem normal to me, a member of the Government or the president of ANRE, to benefit from compensated electricity prices. Or, this is the system, according to consumption. I had a formal dialogue with the market, with the other state institutions – the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Finance, the INS, the ANAF and many others, let’s see what this period would mean, after April 1. We will formalize this approach through a Memorandum in the Government this week it has every chance to be adopted, next week at the latest. We are at the last approval at the Ministry of Labor. I also had a meeting last week with the Minister of Labor and we talked about the protection of vulnerable consumers, because they are targeted by possible tariff increases. That won’t happen. Romanian consumers in energy poverty will not suffer. We will do everything possible to protect them,” said Burduja, quoted by Agerpres.

The competent minister pointed out that, from the moment of abandoning the capping of energy prices, there will also be a need to protect industrial consumers.

“At the same time, as a liberal, I take issue with industry, because it is just as important to protect industrial consumers, because if they are not able to continue to function, then the world will not have a job. And this is a problem. We are exploring several options. What I can guarantee is that it will be a process, as I have accustomed you in my mandate, including at the table with the private sector once, we have time to get everything in place by around January next year, so that on April 1st all the systems of the suppliers and the whole market are in place, and the end consumers know what to expect and the impact is be as small as possible. From my point of view, I believe in a free market and I believe in a phased re-liberalization of the market, that is, to have a smooth transition to a context in which the market works and delivers the correct price to the invoice and competitive,” the Minister of Energy said.