The Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Environment, Virgil Popescu, argues that it must be clearly defined who are the Romanians that really need subsidies, because there are villas around Bucharest with heated swimming pools benefiting from a gas subsidy.

“I find that there are tendencies to ‘overcharge’ or ‘over-size’ the meaning of my statements regarding the need to define the vulnerable consumer. Yes, we need to clearly define who are the Romanians that really need the subsidies. As I said previously, around Bucharest there are villas with heated swimming pools benefiting from a gas subsidy, which is an anomaly. It is a waste of financial resources that are being given to everyone at the moment,” wrote Virgil Popescu on his Facebook page.

He specified that for the definition of the vulnerable consumer, an inter-ministerial working group will have to be created, according to Agerpres. “I re-state that this concept will not be realized only by the Ministry of Economy, but we will create an inter-ministerial working group with the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Public Works and Administration. We should really work for people, not just for certain groups of interests,” explained the Minister of Economy.

On Wednesday, at taking office, Virgil Popescu said that the subsidizing of the price paid by the entire population of Romania to energy and gas should stop and should continue to receive aid only to those who really need it.