The management team of the Romanian Commodities Exchange (BRM) launched on Wednesday a public call to PSD to reject what they called an „attempt to nationalize natural gas trading”, namely a proposal that would have been presumably initiated by Deputy Iulian Iancu (photo) and would prohibit BRM from trading the natural gas.
On the same subject, USR announced on Wednesday that it is asking for replacing Iulian Iancu from the head position in the Industry Committee, as the PSD MP is accused of having undermined the national interests in the energy field.
Deputy Iulian Iancu is the source of the apocalyptic information launched in January about the National Energy System and the lack of coal reserves. This type of statement, coming from different sources, made the price of electricity reach 650 lei per MWh on 27 January, almost three times the price registered in the same period of the last year, after it reached on 15 and 23 January the highest price for energy in Europe, according to the OPCOM data, the operator of Romania’s electricity and natural gas market.
BRM: changes made under pressure from Iulian Iancu
„The Romanian Commodities Exchange (BRM) (…) expresses its dismay regarding the decision of the Industry and Services Committee from the Chamber of Deputies, which adopted in the meeting on 16 May 2017 an amendment to the draft law on the approval of the Emergency Ordinance of the Government 64/2016 amending and supplementing the Law on Electricity and Natural Gas 123/2012, which virtually nationalises the services offered by BRM,” the management of BRM states in a press release quoted on Wednesday by Digi24.
BRM representatives publicly call on the Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, Liviu Dragnea, to involve in solving this situation and rejecting this attempt of nationalization that pushes Romania back to the communist period.
„The Industry and Services Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, under the pressure from the committee president Iulian Iancu, adopted this amendment without having the topic mentioned on the agenda of this meeting and against the negative opinions received from the Government, ANRE, the Competition Council and the European institutions. BRM expresses its profound disapproval of the way the President of the Industry and Services Committee from the Chamber of Deputies treats the Romanian private capital that runs a legal activity, for the development of which it has invested several million lei so far, an activity that is appreciated by the players from the market. They traded, within a transparent, non-discriminatory and honest framework, a volume of more than 40 TWh over the last two years and reached more than 30% of the national consumption in April”, the BRM’s press release states.
At the same time, BRM informs the market participants that it will take all the necessary legal measures to defend its rights under the national and European legislation in force.
According to Digi24, the amendment in question, invoked by BRM, along with the other amendments, were not available for checking on the Chamber of Deputies’ website.
BRM was granted the right to trade natural gas in July 2013, in the same time with the centralized market operator license.
According to Digi24, the original wording (Article 119 of the proposed Law 110/2016 on the adoption of OUG 64/2016 on the Energy Law 123/2012) that stipulates that licenses for centralized markets management are granted (markets where BRM also operated) has been replaced with another version saying that for „the centralized wholesale market management a single license is granted to the operator of the centralized wholesale gas markets and another one to the operator of the balancing market„.
The single license would be granted to OPCOM, the state operator.
USR asks for the replacement of Iulian Iancu from the Industry Committee
The only party that reacted to the amendments made to OUG 64 in the committee led by Iulian Iancu was the Save Romania Union (USR), which announced on Tuesday, through Deputy Claudiu Nasui, that calls for the dismissal of the committee president.
Deputy Nasui believes that, through his actions, Iulian Iancu undermined Romania’s interests in the energy field. USR says that Iulian Iancu tries, by the mean of several amendments to the law for approving OUG 64/2016, which provides for the liberalization of the natural gas price for all consumers and the elimination of export restrictions, to „de facto block” the effects of the ordinance.
Deputy Claudiu Nasui also announced that his parliamentary group will ask for the law for the approval of OUG 64/2016 to be sent back to the committee, as the USR MPs want the legislation to be adopted by the Parliament in its original form.
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