Bogdan Tudorache

The current governance program has the time horizon of November, and during this short period, no major transformations of the energy system can take place, says the Minister of Economy and Energy (MEEMA), Virgil Popescu.

“Obviously, on a four-year program we can think of more things. I was also talking to the director of Hidroelectrica and Nuclearelectrica, and they were telling me, for example, how can they together form a company with very big assets coming to market, we can discuss of many scenarios, but in a government mandate of four years, where you have four years of credibility, where you can think a little more. The change of ministers, the change of ministries, does not lead to … moving some ministries from one to another, mergers, destructions – and here I speak not of the last year, but since the beginning of 1990 – it does not lead to a continuity and a predictability of the energy system. I was not a fan of the combination of these four ministries, but I think at the moment there is a much better picture of the Romanian economy … ”, said Popescu.

Asked by energynomics.ro how will he solve the problem of the provisorate in the state companies, Popescu replied: “We have proposed in the government program that the Ordinance 109 should apply to all state-owned companies. That’s what we’re going to do. And we will make a serious selection and we will make sure to have serious managers, who have independence, but the management contracts, besides the profit, will be related to the investment area. If we squeeze the profit, without investments we will see that in a year-two-three we will no longer have profits.”