Energy Minister Virgil Popescu was scheduled to hold a press conference on the solar tax at 12:30 p.m., but AUR leader George Simion appeared at the podium instead. How did Simion manage to get to the ministry and sit down at the rostrum from which Virgil Popescu was going to speak at the conference? “I entered through the door,” answered the AUR leader.

13:49 Virgil Popescu accuses George Simeon of deviant behavior and an ulterior motive:

• “The conference could not be held in the presence of Mr. Simeon and the predecessors of Mr. Simeon, who has many faults and deviant behavior, and the only purpose for which he came here was to organize a circus, so I think it is wise to postpone this conference until , when that person leaves the room.
• What George Simion has done today is a mockery of public institutions and public opinion.
• To come and try to distort the conference and not allow it to happen means that you have an ulterior motive, because it is no coincidence that today, December 5, the embargo on Russian oil went into effect. Also today, the price limit for Russian oil came into force (..)
• And Mr. Simion is here today, trying to prevent us from passing on these messages. Again, if this proof were needed, Mr. Simion is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Russians and a mouthpiece for Putin, acting against the interests of the Romanian state.”

13:40 In the end, George Simion left the ministry, and Minister Virgil Popescu at that time appeared at the press conference, which was scheduled for 12:30.

Journalists who were waiting for the press conference of the Minister of Energy were in for a surprise: instead of Popescu, AUR leader George Simion appeared. The AUR leader broadcast live all the way to the Ministry of Energy, where he went and managed to cancel the press conference that Virgil Popescu was going to hold. He managed to get in with some journalists.

• “I entered through the door. I was told that I would not be allowed to attend this press conference. Came, got up. If I have violated some law, let the state institutions tell me,” said Simion from the podium of the ministry, where Virgil Popescu was going to hold a press conference.
• “The minister ran away, Virgil ran away, the thief ran away,” George Simion said of Popescu’s absence from the conference.

The Secretary of State came and announced the postponement of the start of the conference, citing the fact that the event was attended by people who were not accredited to the event.

After speaking to journalists, the AUR leader went around the ministry in search of Virgil Popescu: “I came to ask: what about the sun tax.”

The “solar tax” theme was started by the USR but capitalized on by the AUR via George Simion fired via the Ministry of Economy.

About the “sun tax”

The Save Romania Union asked the governors to stop publication in the Official Gazette and restore the emergency decree to complete the legislative framework to promote the use of energy from renewable sources, blaming the fact that the PSD-PNL government issued the emergency decree the night before the National Day holiday, which “invents a new tax in the midst of the energy crisis: a tax on the sun.

According to USR, the “solar tax” targets citizens and companies that have invested in photovoltaic panels, generate electricity and consume it in their own home or business.

USR announced on Monday that it will file an infringement procedure with the European Commission for misapplication of a European directive, alleging that a new emergency regulation adopted by the government to promote the use of energy from renewable sources immediately imposes a “solar tax” on many prosumers and gradually on others

• “Minister Virgil Popescu hastened to say that GEO, which introduces a tax on the sun, transposes a European directive. That although there is no sun tax, it still starts in 2026. And if it is still not there, it still does not apply to the little ones. Minister Popescu puts his left foot in the right and talks nonsense. It’s all a lie: his GEO is taxing the sun all at once for many consumers and gradually for others. To be clear: the stupid political decision to charge consumers for what they themselves consume belongs to the government of Nick-Marcel. Christian Guinea wrote about it on Facebook.

Ginea says that the EU Directive strongly discourages self-consumption taxation and even mentions the right of consumers not to be taxed, and while the Directive leaves certain exceptions, the GEO adopted by the government turns them into the rule.

• “The right of consumers not to be charged for what they consume themselves is omitted as a reference in the GEO text when setting a charge for all consumers starting in 2026. The fee applies immediately to citizens and companies that generate more than 30 kW or have received government support (eg Casa Verde). This includes SMEs and farms that have invested or want to invest in PV.
• Then, by simply converting ‘the state can’ into ‘state taxes’, the securitist-socialist government strikes at independent energy production to protect the market, which is owned by the big state-owned companies under Virgil Popescu.” writes Christian Guinea.

According to him, the UDR will urgently notify the European Commission to start the infringement procedure for the erroneous application of the European directive.

In response, the Ministry of Energy stated that the extraordinary order on finalizing the legal framework for promoting the use of energy from renewable sources, recently adopted by the Government, transposes Directive (EC) 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, the Ministry of Energy states.

The Ministry claims that the changes were necessary given that Romania risks starting an infringement procedure (the risk of going to the Court of Justice of the European Union in case 2021/0333).

Regarding the introduction of the tax for prosumers, representatives of the Ministry of Energy specify, among other things, “as a general rule, prosumers do not pay any tax, but Directive 2018/2001 speaks of the introduction of a tax for prosumers under certain conditions, which can be found in Article 21 of the Decree.”

What the EU Directive says: the application of taxes is optional, not mandatory

However, the EU directive cited by the Ministry of Energy states that EU member states “may apply taxes,” unlike the government’s GEO, which states that “central government bodies and NARE apply taxes and tariffs.”

What the EU Directive provides:

“Member States may apply non-discriminatory and proportionate charges and tariffs to their own consumers of energy from renewable sources in relation to electricity from renewable sources produced by them that remains on their territories in one or more of the following cases:

• (a) if self-generated electricity from renewable sources is effectively supported by support schemes, only to the extent that the economic viability of the project and the incentive effect of such support are not undermined;
• (b) from 1 December 2026, if the global share of self-consumption installations exceeds 8 % of the total installed electricity capacity of a Member State, and if this is demonstrated by means of a cost-benefit analysis carried out by the national regulatory authority of such Member State through an open, transparent and collaborative process, that the provision set forth in paragraph (2)(a)(ii) either results in a significant disproportionate burden on the long-term financial sustainability of the electricity system or creates an incentive that exceeds what is objectively necessary to achieve cost-effective use of renewable energy, and that such burden or incentive cannot be minimized by taking other reasonable actions; or
• (c) if electricity from renewable sources of own production is produced in installations with a total installed electricity capacity of more than 30 kW.