The Foundation for the Defense of the Citizen Against State Abuses has asked the Ministry of Energy for information on how this institution has complied with the obligations assumed by the Romanian state through the NRRP programme in the field of energy.
It is about reaching milestones, which involve the adoption of legislative acts, within a certain time limit and which result in the release of funding for investments worth billions of euros of European money.
FACIAS has received a detailed response from the Ministry of Energy and has learned that, as with the milestones for which the Ministry of Labour is responsible, we are far from meeting our obligations.
Specifically, it has been communicated that Milestone No. 114, namely the entry into force of the law on decarbonisation adopting the coal/lignite phase-out timetable, has not yet been met from the European Commission's point of view. In fact, the Romanian officials have been pretending to do their job and have created an amalgam of amendments to the law that does not entirely match the obligation undertaken in the NRRP. This milestone should have been implemented and endorsed by the European partners by 31 December 2022.
As for milestone 115, i.e. the decommissioning of lignite-based electricity production capacity, it is effectively blocked, with the Ministry of Energy admitting that the measures adopted by the Romanian side have not even been analysed by the European Commission. The same situation applies to milestone 126, which was also due on 31 December 2022, but for which we still do not have the approved legislation.
We have also discovered from the answer given by the Ministry of Energy that Romania is obliged by the NRRP to gradually close down lignite-based electricity production capacity, totalling over 660MW, if it wishes to receive funding of millions of euros for renewable energy production with the application of the principle of 'no significant damage'.
f you want to see what the NRRP money is being spent on click here. https://facias.ro/cum-au-fost-cheltuiti-banii-din-pnrr-documente/?fbclid=IwAR2tQXVpl2hRISf6eRMudPr8vt7vpQM-Cl-C6QXhI5u_pBfPxKdHlM0AJD0