The Minister of Energy, Bogdan Ivan, announced on Wednesday evening that he is negotiating with representatives of the European Commission to convince them to postpone the deadline for closing coal-fired power plants by a few months.
Bogdan Ivan stated in a message posted on TikTok that for the past two months, he has been presenting arguments to European officials in favor of keeping coal-fired power plants, after Romania committed five years ago to completely abandon coal mines and coal-fired power plants by the end of 2025.
The condition negotiated by Romanian representatives at that time, added the Minister of Energy, was for our country to receive significant European funds to open new capacities for electricity production.
"Billions of euros have been received in Romania, but the gas power plant projects intended to replace coal-fired power plants are still on paper. For this reason, today Romanians have almost the highest electricity prices in Europe. With four months left before theoretically decommissioning these coal-fired electricity production capacities, I have come to find a solution to prevent this," stated the Minister of Energy, Bogdan Ivan.
He believes that if Romania gives up coal-fired electricity production capacities, the price of electricity will increase even more.
At the same time, Minister Bogdan Ivan argues that in this scenario, thousands of people will lose their jobs both in Oltenia and in the Jiu Valley.
"I sincerely hope that after presenting very clear arguments on how important it is for Romania to continue operating these plants, the European Commission will understand and accept what we have proposed with very clear arguments, and we will succeed in postponing this deadline.
The very clear condition that I am assuming is to replace them with new gas-fired electricity production capacities, precisely to moderate prices and to continue having electricity in Romania," added Minister of Energy Bogdan Ivan.