From May 5th, in Romania began the campaign for the local elections scheduled on June 5th. energynomics.ro proposes you in the following weeks to familiarize yourself with the most important projects the Bucharest Mayoralty candidates submit to the public. We intend to bring to your attention as many candidates from the parties and independents as possible. We urge you to address questions to them and comment upon the ideas of the candidates when they come into your area of expertise!

Esteemed Mr. Cătălin Predoiu, what are your priorities as mayor of Bucharest?

First I want to say what my vision is for the Capital, because all my opponents are boasting about priorities, but none of them has a vision upon the development of Bucharest. The essence of my vision is really putting on the regional map Romania’s Capital and to capitalize the truly undeniable potential that it has. All public policies and administrative strategies that I propose and which I will implement are based on the political vision of restoring the Romanian Capital’s role and its strategic place that needs to be claimed, to make Bucharest a city which, by 2018, at 100th anniversary of modern, independent and united Romania, becomes the Capital that this country deserves, and in 2019, when Romania will hold the Presidency of the Council of Europe, must become the Capital of Europe. The immediate priorities are related to the completion of the already started projects, which at the moment jam Bucharest and make life for its inhabitants a true nightmare. I am referring primarily to the traffic. At the same time, my main objective is to consolidate the finances of Bucharest.

Specifically, my local government program has six priority areas:

1. Governance – Ensuring the proper administration of community issues through high performing institutions and motivated employees, characterized by transparency, systematic consultation and participatory decisions, urban planning and development, protection, development and marketing of the city heritage, public and social services of high quality, a better integration with the regional and national programs and by a high degree of public participation and involvement in the governance of the city in a metropolitan framework anchored in the territory.
2. Mobility – defined by three strategic objectives regarding: traffic, national and international connectivity, IT&C infrastructure.
3. Quality of life – A city to ensure its inhabitants a better life through a high level of safety for its citizens, health conditions comparable to any European Capital, safe housing, affordable, spacious, comfortable and energy efficient, educational facilities of first rank in Europe, cultural and entertainment facilities.
4. The environment – Environmental conditions that put the Capital among the first European Capitals, characterized by dramatically decreasing of air, water and land pollution, with a high level of presence and distribution of green spaces within the city.
5. The economy – a prosperous economy, powerful and dynamic, marked by innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, high productivity, with a market labor that is attractive and flexible, focusing on sustainable development, with a prestigious image that would facilitate the international integration and expansion.
6. The people – with a level of education and professional qualification requirements adapted to the knowledge society and to labor market requirements, people who are concerned and have access to well-defined programs for lifelong learning, with an open mentality.

District heating is one of the urgent problems of the Capital, one in which the City Hall has an extremely important role. How will you prepare for the winter of 2016 and what are the future plans (3-4 years) to defuse this issue? Specifically, what is the future of RADET?

The heat distribution public service is indeed in a difficult situation, not restructured, not modernized and with debts exceeding 800 million euros. The solution here is to develop an integrated production and distribution of heat. The new company will not only have to ensure the heat distribution, but also to produce it at a fair price.

To achieve this goal, measures must be discussed and agreed with the Government, which at this time owns the energy producer ELCEN Bucharest.

For winter 2016-2017, RADET Bucharest will have to prepare (during the summer) the primary and secondary networks. We will provide the financial resources for current repairs and overhauls of the installations. In parallel, they will carry out major repairs to the distribution network, by using European funds provided by the Big Infrastructure Operational Program that has allocated 180 million euros.

A definition of vulnerable consumers delays to be implemented at national level (and European). So far, the City Hall has assumed some form of support for the people who have difficulties in paying the bills. Does this formula seem reasonable to you? Do you intend to change it in any way?

The City Hall has an obligation to guarantee a quality public service and at a fair price. At this moment, as I said, the service is not restructured and not modernized, which is also reflected in the price of the heat unit (Gcal). This is why, indeed, the City Hall currently supports from the budget more than 50% of the production and distribution price of the Gcal.

The tariff difference supported from the budget will be maintained in the next period, but the amount will decrease as the company will be restructured and modernized, yields will rise, the primary and secondary networks will be replaced, reducing losses, and production cost will decrease.

In the medium term I propose to replace the general support with various forms of support for the people in difficulty and establish a set of criteria and procedures for support.

Seen as an optimal solution a few years ago, the enveloping of the apartment blocks is today hotly contested and, anyway, almost blocked in the absence of a viable system of financing. What is your solution, to reduce the energy costs, first for the buildings that you have in the property, but also for the thousands of housing units?

The envelopment of the apartment blocks must continue. I believe that is the measure with the greatest benefit on decreasing the heat loss from the apartments, reducing the bills, changing the appearance of the city and, not least, creating jobs. Abuses made during the program must be resolved by applying the law and not by stopping the program.

Funding solutions must be found both from European funds and from the budgets of the sector municipalities and the General Mayoralty.

The solution is the one mentioned earlier, restructuring, modernization, thermal insulation and the use of alternative energy production (solar panels, development of incinerators with energy production) in one word, efficiency.

Microgeneration and distributed production close to the place of consumption are two trends of the future, globally. Do you plan to support such developments in Bucharest, for the production of electricity and heat? How exactly? (Solar, photovoltaic panels, biomass plants).

Strictly speaking, the new strategy of integrated production and heat distribution will contain all these measures and modern means of increasing the energy efficiency. Regarding this aspect, the specialists must have the final word. My concern will be to guarantee to the Bucharest inhabitants a quality service at a competitive price with the requirement to increase the quality of life in Bucharest.

The transportation of goods and people in the Capital is the main source of pollution (harmful gases, noise etc.) and stress for the Bucharest inhabitants. Mobility difficulties hinder the faster development of some areas and increase the costs for businesses and citizens. What is your plan for a much more fluent and less toxic traffic? What place has the electric mobility – train, bus, car sharing, electric cars and fueling stations for these – in these plans?

It is a fact that the city changes and grows much faster than we expected. In Bucharest daily circulate over 1.5 million vehicles (over 10 times more compared to 1990). We bring integrated solutions that decrease the number of cars in the city, reduce air pollution and contribute to a good traffic flow, as follows:

• an intelligent parking management system with an application indicating the available parking places in the city, for better traffic flows;
• intermodal hubs outside Bucharest equipped with generous parking spaces (park & ride) and we will extend the subway (especially the surface one) to these parking areas that are the main access points to the city;
• a regional system of e-ticketing, integrated parking/public transportation;
• public transport expanded in areas predominantly residential from Ilfov county (by intermodal nodes);
• we will extend the public transportation network and we will ensure the good penetration thereof;
• measured and respected frequency of the RATB routes;
• special corridors dedicated for cyclists, clearly delineated, alternating this approach with solutions that do not require a dedicated infrastructure (such as in London, Amsterdam);
• we will develop solutions based on bike-sharing subscriptions, including infrastructure for bike-sharing;
• software solutions to promote cycling;
• the development of the public transport, we will focus on buses with hybrid and electric engines, the modernization of the tram network and extend the subway to discourage the use of personal cars.

Finally, the cities of the future are smart and green, which means energy efficiency, production from renewable resources, interconnection and remote control between core systems (including energy). How long will it take for you to propose to the Bucharest inhabitants a specific action plan for Bucharest – Smart City?

I invite you to read my program “Bucharest 2020 – The Joy of Living” and you will find that we have already come up with such a specific action plan. The 6 priority areas that I mentioned are fully developed based on the Smart City criteria.

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On June 5th, for the City Hall will run 12 candidates, entered on the ballots in this order.

1. Mirel Amariţei – ProDemo
2. Daniel Barbu – ALDE
3. Cătălin Berenghi – independent
4. Nicuşor Dan – USB READ THE INTERVIEW GRANTED TO energynomics.ro!
5. Bogdan Diaconu – PRU
6. Petrică Dima – PSRO
7. Gabriela Firea – PSD+UNPR alliance
8. Iulia Gorea-Costin – PNŢCD
9. Niculae Neamţu – Republican Party
10. Cătălin Predoiu – PNL
11. Adrian Severin – PDS
12. Robert Turcescu – PMP