Political interference in energy endangers 500 million euros from the PNRR

Our country risks losing one billion euros from the funds allocated through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), a loss of which half - 500 million euros - would be caused by political interference in the appointment of the management of some state energy companies, management made up of from incompatible people, state government sources cited by G4Media and Hotnews.

Regarding these aspects, although he claims that we will not lose a single euro from the PNRR, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said yesterday: "An incompetent person at Energy made a selection as he thought in 1992-1996. He thought he was playing tricks, but he didn't play tricks at the Commission."

Prime Minister Ciolacu also emphasized that representatives of the European Commission have access to information on problems in energy companies and in other fields, including thanks to the free press in Romania. "Those people have information, that there is a free press, thanks to you the European Commission has all the information. They said: we have a request, resume the procedures, otherwise you don't take the money", said yesterday, the head of the Government.

The European Commission has indicated that some companies, such as Hidroelectrica, Nuclearelectrica, Romgaz and Transelectrica, have appointed incompatible persons to their boards of directors. Furthermore, the selections were not transparent. Regarding the procedure at the Transelectrica company, we mention that it was reported in several articles that appeared in the BURSA Newspaper.

Another major problem is the selection procedure at the Agency for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Performance of Public Enterprises (AMEPIP), under the coordination of the Government. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced that this procedure will be resumed in the next 45 days, after the current interim leadership resigned following criticism from the European Commission.

Unfortunately, the Ciolacu government has no plans to change the corporate governance legislation or to terminate the contracts of persons deemed incompatible, even if the losses could reach approximately 500 million euros from the total of 2.7 billion euros, which is the third tranche of PNRR. The dismissal of these people would cost only 5-6 million euros, according to government sources, but the political resistance to these changes is high.