The Green Deal is dead, but it should be kept on life support for a while longer, so as not to destroy investments in the renewables industry, said Marian Nastase, chairman of the board of directors of Alro, at an energy conference on Monday.
“It’s clear that we still have industry. We have industry that has become extremely resilient. This means that, after all the beatings we’ve taken in the last 25 years, those of us who are still alive, can clearly now resist. Those who couldn’t, perished. It’s clear that we’re going in one direction… The Green Deal is dead, that’s clear. Now the question is whether we bury it with fiddles or, like that, in the dark. Personally, I don’t agree here. We should keep it on hold for a while, not bury it, because there’s a danger of destroying value again. We destroyed value by destroying industry, it doesn’t make sense to destroy value again now by destroying investments in the renewables industry. I think that what we have so far needs to be, it seems bizarre that I’ve become the advocate of the renewables industry, but they need to be made to easily enter the system. We need gas-fired power plants and we need batteries, the only ones that can help with a better integration of renewables,” explained Năstase, quoted by Agerpres.
At the same time, in his opinion, the European defense industry is still fragile and the arms industry should be developed, “because we can do it”.
“Secondly, it is clear that we are arming ourselves, and Alro is accredited for military standards, for different types of applications. Therefore, I believe that we must be allowed to build as many weapons as possible, because we can do it. For now, the European arsenals are empty. The European industry is still fragile from a defense point of view, because after so many years of peace they have not had much to do. But we can do it”, Marian Năstase also stated at the Energy Forum, organized by Financial Intelligence.
On the other hand, regarding energy prices, he mentioned that they will increase, especially in the context of the new draft Order of ANRE regarding the introduction of a guarantee for contracts concluded on the electricity markets in the form of a percentage of the value of the contracts, the proposal being that this guarantee be 30%.
“For now, we are waiting for energy prices to increase. We see them coming. Last Thursday, I saw a press article (…) that the regulator wants to impose a 30% obligation on suppliers, paid in advance in cash or with a bank guarantee, on the value of the contract. And I thought, if people keep asking me what I think about whether or not prices will increase, now I know for sure: they will increase. So this is the answer and we are waiting for them to increase, because when this regulation is put in place, it is clear that the respective amount, the respective cash or the respective guarantees, will be requested from the consumer. We have already experienced this during the great crisis, when suppliers asked us for guarantees, including 100% of the value of the contract. Us as consumers. So the price will not decrease for the consumer, that is clear,” Năstase pointed out.