Romania has a very serious problem of credibility for large investors, which it will be hard to change, due to the repeated changes in the legislation, said Daniela Dărăban, executive director of the Federation of Associations of Energy Utility Companies (ACUE).
“Romania is more vulnerable today compared to other countries that have their own resources, because no investments were made in the last 15-20 years. The main causes are the legislative changes and the way they were made. We have the bad habit of jumping from bad to worse. Once we are very generous with the legislation, and in two or three years we change our policy and make a very restrictive legislation. And this causes unpredictability and a very big problem for state’s credibility in attracting investors. We already have a pattern and with a lot of effort we will return to a level of credibility that will ensure the return of serious investors to Romania for partnerships in the development of projects involving serious investment funds,” said Dărăban, according to Agerpres.
She mentioned that even in the Black Sea gas projects, investors participate in joint ventures, in order to share the risk.
“I wish that the two remaining investors, OMV Petrom and Romgaz, have the appetite and the opportunity to assume the risk of such investments. But we must be realistic. An investment scenario will never be done at today’s prices, but on a basis of a more conservative and predictable scenario. We change the objectives far too often in the energy sector, we don’t have an integrated planning”, the ACUE representative also added.
According to her, it is quite difficult for someone who has been in charge of the system for two years to be held accountable due of the lack of decisions in the last 15-20 years.
Regarding the scheme for compensation and capping of invoices, she believes that GEO 119 must be improved with other measures.
“We pre-financed this scheme, we appealed to the banks and that’s how the exposure increased. In recent months, the volume of payments has increased, but the gap is still increasing (the difference between what the suppliers must receive and what the state actually pays). A solution is urgently needed for suppliers to have access to liquidity,” said the executive director of ACUE.