Romanian National Coal Company (CNH) may be rid of its historical debts

The Romanian National Coal CompanyC (CNH) may be rid of its historical debts, and that may even happen with the agreement of the International Monetary Fund and of the European Commission. Constantin Jujan, the managing director of CNH, said: "On Thursday night, at the Ministry of the Economy, we have agreed to find any solutions in this respect. There will be more meetings in the near future, at the Ministry of Finance".

Tudor Şerban, advisor to the Ministry of the Economy, Ion Ariton, said that one solution would be for the historical debts to disappear once the unviable companies would be shut down. "We will have to wait and see the conclusions that will be reached in the coming period".

Both officials have said that the restructuring and the streamlining of the CNH is certain. Three mines will be shut down by 2018, to allow accessing state aids allowed by the European Union, and four other viable mines will remain operational. The three mines to be shut down include Petrila, Uricani and Paroşeni. The remaining four - Lonea, Livezeni, Vulcani and Lupeni - may be included in a company that may be integrated in the energy colossus Hidroenergetica. In the event that the lawsuits filed against the latter will prevent its creation, part of the historical debts will disappear together with the unprofitable mines. The shutting down of the three mines will not mean the layoff of almost half of the more than 8,000 miners that are still employed by the CNH. The authorities claim that the miners will still be needed for the shutdown and environmental cleanup procedures.

CNH, which is the largest debtor to the state budget, and energy maker "Termoelectrica" will liquidate their unprofitable assets, according to Mediafax. The procedures used by the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF) in dealing with the arrears of the CNH will eventually lead to the sale of the viable assets of the company. The remaining mining operations will be liquidated, in compliance with the legislation of the European Union. In the case of Termoelectrica, the viable assets will be spun off, and the remaining businesses will be shut down.