The Minister of Economy and Energy, Virgil Popescu, announced on Thursday evening that he will go to Brussels, at the European Commission, where he will have a meeting with the Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, to discuss the state aid for the Oltenia Energy Complex and Tarom.

He stated, at Digi 24, that the Ordinance for the approval of these aids is part of the package of 25 ordinances approved at the last meeting of the Government, and, if not approved, 13,000 people from the CEO and several thousand from Tarom had a 99% chance of being laid-off, according to financialintelligence.ro.

“The Ministry of Economy had two Emergency Ordinances. One was with the state aid to the Oltenia Energy Company, which was in parallel, simultaneously, with the state aid for Tarom. If I didn’t issue it now and the Government was dismissed, what would we have done with those people now, 13,000 at the Oltenia Energy Complex and a few thousand at Tarom? What would have been done with them, as there was no rescue aid for these two companies, therefore I will go to the European Commission on Monday, for state aid. I have a meeting with the Competition Commissioner for this. We explained, pre-notified, the Ordinance had to be enforced. If we didn’t, then we had a 99% chance of closing those companies,” explained the minister, quoted by Agerpres.