Rising gas prices are rekindling talk of at least a temporary return to regulated rates. The Minister of Public Finance has already declared himself in favor of the regulation, and the return to regulated tariffs means that the state would keep under control the price increases that are expected in the next period, after Gazprom reduced deliveries to Europe. While the social democrats (PSD) claim that the measure is a necessity, the liberals are reserved, according to TVR. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă avoids making a statement, in the absence of analyzes made by subordinate institutions.

Thus, the social democrats argue that a temporary control of energy prices could slow down price increases, including those of other products. In Germany, for example, the price of gas has risen this year by 400% compared to last year, after the Russians severely limited supplies.

“My opinion still remains – the price must be regulated. (…) I already see a mobilization at the European level and some discussions applied at the European level. There is more and more talk about regulation, not compensation, I saw that certain states, such as France, have also nationalized,” claims

Marcel Ciolacu, PSD president.

Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă is not against it, but prefers to wait for the results of the analyzes of gas price capping and invoice compensation, measures already in force.

“We let the specialized institutions, I mean ANRE, at the Ministry of Energy, together with the Ministry of Finance (…) to identify working hypotheses on the possible evolution scenarios based on what happened in the last 3 months of when the ordinance began to produce effects,” explained Nicolae Ciucă.

The Minister of Public Finance has already declared himself in favor of price regulation.

“In the way energy is sold on the market, things, from our point of view, have entered a regime, to be elegant, too uncertain to be manageable. And we must, indeed, intervene in an area of regulating the market, of the market on its flow, that somewhere things are very unbalanced”, said Adrian Câciu, the Minister of Public Finance.