USR requests on Friday PSD and PNL to urgently start the parliamentary procedure for the selection of new members in the management of the National Regulatory Authority in the field of Energy. The mandates of four of the seven members of ANRE’s Regulatory Committee expire on April 23, after they were illegitimately extended by emergency ordinance.

“Interims from ANRE management must stop. 6 months ago, the Government extended the mandates by emergency ordinance, talking about solving the energy crisis and stability in the conditions of a border war. In reality, it was not like that. We have all seen an ANRE president more concerned with taking exotic vacations in the midst of an energy crisis. USR asks the PSD-PNL Coalition to urgently start the selection of ANRE management members. We must have, in the next month, competent people proposed to lead ANRE and hold hearings in Parliament, so that all tax payers in Romania can see those who will be sent to lead ANRE and will be paid the minimum 8,000 euros per month,” says Cristina Prună, USR deputy and vice-president of the Commission for Industries and Services in the Chamber of Deputies, according to news.ro.

In October 2022, the mandates of four of the ANRE Regulatory Committee members – led by the Authority’s president, Dumitru Chiriţă – were extended by six months by the Ciucă Government through GEO 139/2022. This despite the fact that the USR has repeatedly requested the combined Offices of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate to initiate the selection procedure for new members in the leadership of ANRE, the formation states.

“Because they did not agree on how to divide their monetary functions, the PSD and the PNL preferred to extend the mandates through an emergency ordinance, even if this meant a gross violation of the Parliament’s prerogatives. And because they have an ever-longer list of sinecures waiting for a tepid job, the parties in the Price Increases Coalition also refused to withdraw from the parliamentary procedure the draft law that increases the number of positions at ANRE by almost 50%. Once the project is adopted, the institution that managed the invoice crisis so badly, will have 530 positions, plus management positions,” states USR.