The Oltenia Energy Complex wants a renegotiation of its restructuring plan with the European Commission, the president of the Competition Council, Bogdan Chirițoiu, said.
Regarding the Jiu Valley, he said that the European Commission wants the Romanian authorities to respect the decisions they have taken.
Too little coal is extracted from Jiu Valley, so little that Paroşeni Central cannot work uninterrupted. More precisely, what is taken out of Jiu Valley now does not cover Paroşeni’s operation. So, there is no large amount of energy; there is no distortion of the market or anything. The Commission wants us to respect the decisions made. I am convinced that we will respect them, but, again, I do not see it as a big emergency. I am more concerned about the plan for restructuring Oltenia. Oltenia is much more important for the energy system than Paroseni-Valea Jiului. We also have the problem that the Chinese have withdrawn. The European Commission has investigated Chinese companies that wanted to participate in investments in photovoltaics in Oltenia. Anyway, Oltenia had delays in the restructuring plan, so they want it to be renegotiated with the European Commission. In terms of economic impact, it seems to me that what is at SNLO is more important,” said the head of the competition authority.
He assured that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “is going well in the area of state aid” and there are no delays in this regard.
You know that we work a lot on state aid. Things look better than usual; that is, PNRR is doing well in the area of state aid; there are no delays. What do we have to do there? Let’s make sure that the projects in PNRR respect the rules of state aid. If you want a precondition so that the various investments, allocations of funds, etc. can be made, our part is going well; we have no delays in this area of state aid. We are starting and working on the new funds for cohesion, so on the new budget, and here things are on schedule so far, Chirițoiu said, according to Agerpres.
According to him, in the next period, the Competition Council will work a lot on the nuclear field because the notification of state aid for the construction of reactors 3 and 4 is starting. Additionally, discussions are underway regarding the refurbishment of Unit 1.