The Minister of Investments and European Funds, Marcel Boloş, obtained a principle agreement from the European Commission for the settlement from European funds of the amounts allocated from the state budget for the compensation of the energy price for SMEs and beneficiaries through the Energy Transition Fund.

“In order to avoid the risk of losing European money, Minister Marcel Boloş obtained an agreement in principle from the European Commission for the amounts allocated from the state budget to compensate the energy price for SMEs and beneficiaries through the Energy Transition Fund to be settled from EU funds, worth up to 500 million euros. He wants to introduce exceptional measures for the use of funds to support SMEs affected especially by the increase in energy prices,” sources from the ministry told Agerpres.

The proposed amendment consists in the reimbursement of expenses already incurred/paid by the Ministry of Energy, from the state budget, through the Energy Transition Fund, to electricity and natural gas suppliers on behalf of SMEs, based on the price ceiling scheme established by the Ordinance Government emergency no. 27/2022, with subsequent amendments and additions.

Thus, through the reunification/reimbursement of the amounts already paid from the state budget, from European funds, Romania’s ability to continue to allocate the amounts necessary to cover the additional costs incurred at the enterprise level, as a result of the energy increases, is ensured.

In this sense, it will be proposed to create a new React-EU priority axis with the Ministry of Energy as the only eligible beneficiary. Within this priority axis, the Ministry of Energy would submit the funding request to cover only the payments made to energy suppliers on behalf of SMEs under the price capping scheme.

According to the quoted source, the procedural details are to be established with the EC representatives.