Having already collected money from the PNRR, the Romanian state now wants to revisit these milestones. In particular, the new gas and solar power plants in Oltenia will not be ready until 2026, so we cannot close the lignite mines before Romania has committed to, having received a €1.2 billion state aid deal from Brussels Energy Complex Oltenia. Now the authorities in Bucharest must explain to Brussels what happened and why we need an extension. Energy Minister Sebastien Bourduya says that a criminal investigation has been launched into the matter.

“In order to postpone the deadline for the closure of lignite mines, it is necessary to amend the law on decarbonization in parliament, which can be done, but we need to amend the Restructuring Plan with the approval of the European Commission, because otherwise it will be declared illegal state aid, and illegal state aid of 1.2 billion euros means the end of the Oltenia energy complex and we cannot risk this scenario, and it also means a revision of the PNRR, attention, for the main stages for which Romania has already collected the corresponding amounts, and I do not think that has a precedent,” Energy Minister Sebastien Bourduya said at a press conference.

Transelectrica will conduct a study on the adequacy of the system, which will be available at the end of next year.

“Based on the data of the study, we hope that we will have new arguments before the European Commission in order to keep in operation some groups from Turcheni and Rovinari, and therefore the development of lignite, for a certain period,” Burduja said.

The minister cited the example of Poland, which decided to maintain coal production until 2049.

In the case of Oltenia, we may need to use coal for another year and a half to two years before the new capacity can be commissioned.

“But, again, the promise was that we strive and will present all the arguments from the point of view of the Ministry of Energy,” Burduya noted.

Later he also added: “We must find arguments from the realm of contingencies.”

When asked what caused this delay and who is to blame, the minister answered:

“We are looking into what happened, there is also a group from the supervisory authority, they have completed a partial report, which we have passed on to all the responsible authorities, including the criminal sector. The report is about a security incident and how certain purchases were made, I cannot give more details information, because criminal proceedings are ongoing.”