Companies active in Romania in sectors facing significant electricity costs and which are particularly exposed to international competition have begun to receive the help they need, after the Romanian Government approved, at the end of May, an Emergency Ordinance on a state aid scheme for large energy consumers, announced the Ministry of Economy and Energy (MEEMA).

Thus, the first large energy-intensive industrial consumer to submit its file under this state aid scheme, ALRO Slatina, benefited from the payment of approximately 243 million lei.

“I promised during the emergency that I will do everything possible to help and support the Romanian industry to maintain its competitiveness, both in the context of the coronavirus pandemic and in the complicated context of an increasingly demanding global market. Today, we can see the fruits of the measures taken by the Romanian Government and the promise we made is starting to be fulfilled. The first large energy-intensive industrial consumer has already benefited from the payment of about 243 million lei, and in the coming period the files of the next large consumers will be solved and paid. The ordinance that we approved in May allows the support of 15 branches of the Romanian industry. We are talking about producers who have more than 100,000 employees directly and horizontally in the economy. We managed to avoid the huge risk of relocation and we managed to bring again, for the first time in the last 10 years, the competitiveness in the Romanian industry. We can say, without exaggeration, that we saved the Romanian industry, especially after the measures taken in the past years led to the increase of the electricity price, so they endangered the jobs of these employees,” said Virgil Popescu, Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Environment.

The state aid scheme is in the form of a direct subsidy for energy-intensive consumers to offset the costs of gas emissions, transferred in the price of electricity, following the model applied in other member states.

The measures proposed by the Emergency Ordinance approved in May allow maintaining the competitiveness of Romanian companies in relation to other competitors in Europe and abroad. The measure thus contributes to maintaining the competitiveness of energy-intensive products and allows companies to remain competitive both in relation to other competitors outside the European area, which have not set up an ETS marketing scheme, as well as in relation to other competitors in the member states of the European Union, which have already granted such financial measures to large energy consumers. The scheme also helps to prevent the negative social effect caused by the restriction of industrial activity due to the loss of competitiveness, following the increase in electricity prices, ie maintaining the approximately 200,000 direct and indirect jobs in the affected industries.