Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke spoke at the start of a government meeting on Wednesday about the measures proposed by the head of the European Commission on the energy market, but he was wrong to say that Ursula von der Leyen would be the president of the Council. of Europe For his part, Minister of Energy Virgil Popescu presented in Brussels the measures that Romania supports to solve the problems in the electricity market.

VIDEO (from at least 18:30) Chuke: Today we have a message from the President of the Council of Europe, Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen

• “A week ago, we adopted amendments to Ordinance 27 on energy measures. A meeting of energy ministers was held, in which Mr. Min Popescu took part. There are also signals, and today we have a message sent by the President of the Council of Europe, Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, regarding the measures that are being taken at the EU level so that we can deal with the situation caused by the gas crisis and energy prices,” said the Prime Minister Minister Nicolae Chuke on Wednesday.

Ursula von der Leyen is the President of the European Commission. The Council of Europe is the largest human rights organization on the continent, with 46 member states, including all the member states of the European Union.

Virgil Popescu: The main reason for high electricity prices in Europe is the high price of natural gas, especially in Russia

The Prime Minister then asked Energy Minister Virgil Popescu to present Romania’s position at the EU Energy Ministerial Council held last week.

“Based on the mandate received at the government meeting, I presented Romania’s point of view on what needs to be done in the electricity market, respectively: we support capping the price of natural gas, separating the price of natural gas from the price of electricity, because the main reason for high prices for electricity in Europe, there is a high price for natural gas, especially for gas from the Russian Federation, which, in my opinion and that of my European colleagues, is clearly being manipulated with the aim of artificially increasing it,” said Virgil Popescu.

The Minister of Energy noted that he also presented measures on the taxation of the producer-trader-supplier trade chain and that a significant part of the measures proposed in GEO 119 are also contained in the proposals of the European Commission and colleagues from other EU countries. of the state

“Also, a proposal almost similar to ours to introduce a cap on electricity price trading in the SPOT markets of all member states was also proposed by Greece for natural gas,” Popescu said.

He said that all proposals have been submitted to the European Commission and a new meeting of energy ministers will be held on September 30 to adopt the final text.

“We will go with the same mandate to the discussions in Brussels and we believe that all states should show solidarity,” said the Minister of Energy.

Finally, Virgil Popescu also clarified that Romania has another proposal in the Council of Ministers held on Friday for an agreed reduction in value added tax (VAT), but this should be discussed at the meeting of finance ministers in ECOFIN.