“Romanians will fly low-cost airlines. The question is whether they will fly with the Romanian company or not,” Digitalization Minister Sebastian Burdugia, who signed a 300 million lei state aid in 2020 to rescue private Romanian company Blue Air during the pandemic, said on Friday.

Sebastian Burduha, Minister of Digitalization, pleaded guilty to the charges on Friday to the former Minister of Transport of the USSR Katalin Drula regarding the situation at the Blue Air company, accusing the current president of the USSR of not applying the law during his authority in transport.

Burduja, on Drula: What did he guard during his mandate at Transporturi? He did not follow the law

Cătălin Drula, former transport minister in the Cîțu government from 23 December 2020 to 7 September 2021, charged that current transport minister Sorin Grindeanu knew Blue Air was dying but said nothing.

He accused Sebastián Burduja that in the fall of 2020, as State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, he signed the government’s decree on “worthless guarantees” for state aid of 300 million lei for Blue Air: “Six old planes that cost all together approx. 10 million lei, as well as a plot of land in the forest, in Băneasa, which cannot be built on.”

• “Unfortunately, the former minister, who was scandalized today, should be asked: what did he protect during his mandate? What guards so many months? Why didn’t he take this company? Why didn’t he use it? Because she clearly still had issues. And let me tell you why, because it is written in the texts of the Decrees and Resolutions of the Government (No. HG 862/2020) – this money was supposed to cover the liquidity needs of these companies until the end of 2020.
• It was an estimate. The pandemic lasted. The conditions of 2020 were preserved in 2021. There were successive waves when all airlines had to ground their planes.
• The Ministry of Transport should have noticed that this company was in trouble and then decided what to do with it: capitalize, sell, let it die, all options were on the table, but it was up to those who took on the task.
• We (..) did what needed to be done, namely we saved some Romanian companies. Those who followed had to make sure that all the conditions laid down in the legal texts and in the preventive agreement were respected,” Sebastien Bourduilla said on Friday.

Asked if he believed that what other government agencies had done also led to the situation Blue Air found itself in, Burduja said:

• “I can only comment on the situation that I knew 2 years ago. I don’t know what stage they are at. I believe that the government is enforcing the law. From now on, the main thing I have to reproach the previous government, namely the then Minister of Transport (na Cătălin Drula), is that he did not respect the law.
• The law very clearly told him and gave him the right to fulfill this guarantee, be a shareholder, and then decide what he would do with this company: bring it to work together with Tarom to serve the low-cost public or not. This is the problem,” Burduya said.

What does Burduzha say about the accusations of signing “worthless guarantees” regarding state aid to Blue Air

Minister Sebastián Bourduya also responded to accusations of a lack of real guarantees regarding the 300 million lei in aid provided to Blue Air.

• “I am surprised that ministers come to Romania who have no idea what a company’s valuation means, and that it consists not only of physical assets, but also of many other things: brand value, customer base, routes. , air base, know-how from the company’s management level. Therefore, all this is part of the objective assessment of an independent specialist who comes and says: this is what this company does,” said Sebastian Burduya.

He also wrote a story about state aid to Blue Air, arguing that the Romanian state did the same as other countries during the pandemic.

• “In 2020, all healthy countries of the world have invested large sums of money in their aviation industry, we are talking about billions of euros. If you look at the major operators, especially in the low-cost segment, you will see that Germany, Spain, Great Britain and other countries have given very large sums to these companies.
• why Because their planes were grounded due to factors beyond the control of these companies, namely the pandemic.
• I want to summarize briefly: on April 23, we have a Memorandum by which the Government promises these companies that they will support them, namely “Tarom” and “Blue Air”. Then we have Resolution 139, then Resolution 167, and finally, sometime in October, we have Government Resolution 862/2020.
• All these normative acts are confirmed by the European Commission. I remember that the approval of the Commission also came within 48 hours, which was unprecedented. So everyone understood that this is a crisis situation, and if the Romanian state does not intervene, these companies will die, which means that they will no longer contribute tens and hundreds of millions of lei to the state budget, they will no longer be able to pay salaries, so I am firing these people , and the state loses, and there are other companies that come and conquer this market.
• Moreover, in the case of Blue Air, since the pandemic, they have been under attack from competitors that the respective states have not hesitated to support. And many valuable routes and air bases were lost to direct competitors, who would probably be happy today.
• But what did the Romanian state do to protect its interests? He adopted, and you can find them in the texts of the emergency decrees and HG 862/2020, a number of unprecedented measures. He introduced a mortgage on all tangible and intangible assets. He imposed a 75% mortgage on all Blue Air shares, shares valued by a reliable independent appraiser, as required by the CE and as specified in the text of the order. The evaluator’s assessment was more than comprehensive, I think 150-160% compared to the aid provided by the Romanian state.
• Moreover, the most important thing in this regard is that the relevant texts provide that the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance have representatives with the right of veto in the Board of Directors of Blue Air. These people are obliged by law and mandate contracts to inform the Romanian state, the relevant ministers, when the company does not comply with what was agreed there.
• So when the company didn’t pay certain amounts or raise certain financing from the capital markets or from some investors, that was their obligation, and I believe they did, but I don’t have the data on that, I just wasn’t listened to. raise two fingers and say: “Romanian state, you have the right to take over this company and do what you want with it: sell it, capitalize it, add it to Tarom, because it complements the services of the national state operator, which is not a low-cost operator.
• And there are “n” models in other smart states that have put their value on this low-cost service that is a service of public interest. Romanians will fly low-cost. The question is whether they will fly with a Romanian company or not,” he said.

Can the state still take away Blue Air? What Burduya tells about how the competition progressed

Journalists asked Burduzh whether the state could still take over Blue Air, given that it now has heavy debts and few planes.

• “In my opinion, seeing the texts and knowing what was there, the state is fully ready to ask questions about the seizure of this company. Accepting it does not mean continuing to invest in it. The Romanian state can say, sir, I own 75% of this company, because the Romanian state put in a mortgage during the issuance of these guarantees, which were also evaluated by independent appraisers and Eximbank,” he said.

When asked who will benefit from this whole situation and what he thinks about how quickly the competition has moved (to the Hungarian company Wizz Air), Sebastien Burduya said:

• “You know, it doesn’t surprise me at all. I have already seen this movie in the 90s. When the Romanian operator started having problems, he was searched for base after base, route after route. This is a reality that Romanians should know and ask themselves: what is the contribution to the Romanian economy of different airlines? Because to a large extent this data is public,” he added.

Cătălin Drula: Grindeanu knew that Blue Air was dying, but he didn’t tell the Romanians either. The history of the cannon for 300 million lei of the PNL + PSD brand

USR President Katelin Drula on Tuesday, September 6, charged that the Blue Air crisis was “exclusively the fault of PNL and PSD” and that “the Romanian state invested 300 million lei in this company.”

In the fall of 2020, Minister Lucian Bode, Ketalin Drula’s predecessor at the Ministry of Transport, initiated GEO 139/2020, according to which the state, through EximBank, provided 300 million lei to Blue Air, money that the state will not return. .

Cătălin Drula said that at that time (October 15, 2020), the Minister of Finance, Florin Sitsu, went on vacation and did not sign the government decision (HG 862/2020) regarding the guarantees for this loan. Sebastien Bourduilla, then Secretary of State, now Minister of Digitalization, signed instead.

The president of USR said that the state will never return this money because of the worthless guarantees that were accepted for this loan: “Six old airplanes, which together cost about 10 million lei, and a plot of land in the forest, in Băneasa, which cannot be built on.” – explained Ketalin Drula.

“This is the government’s job, to see how these guarantees can be provided, to call Mr. Burduža a little so that he explains how he signed and gave 300 million lei to the state for six wrecks and a forest. How has Mr Grindeanu been doing in his job over the past 12 months? Investigations are needed, because what happened here is a cannon,” said the President of the SDR.

According to the order from 2020, at that moment the state should become the owner of 75% of the bankrupt company Blue Air. This state participation should be managed by the Ministry of Transport. Ketalin Drula stated that “Mr. Grindianu, the Minister of Transport, i.e. also the ‘Minister of Aviation’, should not have slept at night knowing about this situation.”

What did Sorin do to Grindean?

“He took the dead man out of the house, leaving people to buy tickets for another four months on some rides he knew wouldn’t run. And he must be responsible for that,” said the President of the Republic of Belarus.

In May, Grindean, through PSD representatives in the parliament, introduced an amendment to the law on the adoption of this ordinance, which changes the management of this state participation from the Ministry of Transport to the State Asset Management Authority (AAAS).

“Four months ago, Sorin Grindeanu was granted asylum through an amendment introduced in parliament to the law approving the decree. Thus, at the time of issuing the guarantees for the loan, the decree stipulated that Transports become the representative of the state as the majority shareholder of Blue Air, the natural position being the airline. Grindean has moved the dead, and the state’s involvement will be handled by AAAS, the agency that manages all the wreckage of the transition. So Grindianu knew what was going to happen, but he didn’t tell the Romanians,” said Drula.

“Grindianu had an obligation of due diligence, not to allow people to find themselves in this hopeless situation, stuck in airports, with the money provided. There were certain obligations of the Ministry of Transport provided by this order, the Ministry also has a representative on the Board of Directors of Blue Air, precisely as a result of this mega-loan granted by the Romanian state, to ensure that things are in order,” explained Chuvak

At the moment, the company is bankrupt, says the president of the UDR, and “the nail in the coffin of this company” was the seizure of all Blue Air accounts.

“Practically, the state kept this company in check. And the devices were strangely unplugged by Environment Minister Barna Tanchos, who then responded negatively to Prime Minister Chuke’s requests to cancel the confiscations,” Katelin Drula said.