The emergency ordinance for the fuel market crisis, blocked for two days, has reportedly been modified and will be adopted tomorrow.
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan convened the National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue on Wednesday to discuss the project. However, the unions boycotted the meeting, accusing Ilie Bolojan of „contempt,” „lack of respect,” and „superficial attitude.”
The National Trade Union Block (BNS) Cartel ALFA, CNSLR - Frăţia, CSDR, and CSN Meridian announced in a joint press release their refusal to participate in the meeting.
"We were expecting the Romanian Government to convene the National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue (NTC-SD) at the beginning of the crisis triggered by the war in Iran and to request proposals from social partners to protect citizens, but especially Romanian companies, from the negative effects and to maintain energy production capacities.
This should have happened if the Romanian Government had been truly focused on identifying the most effective measures that, under the given conditions, would lead to minimizing the impact that the turbulence in the global energy market has on the country's economy," the union's joint statement said.
Instead, union leaders chose to meet Wednesday morning with the PSD president, Sorin Grindeanu.
He stated that the main dissatisfaction of the unions is the lack of real dialogue with the prime minister, and following the discussions he had with union leaders, they together decided on a periodic form of consultation, and their demands would be supported and conveyed to the Coalition level by the PSD.
Grindeanu also mentioned that in the upcoming period, he will meet with representatives of the employers' associations in Romania to discuss specific issues in the private sector.
CES gives approval today. The emergency ordinance will be adopted tomorrow
Meanwhile, the plenary session of the Economic and Social Council (CES) met at 12:30 to review the project after postponing the meeting on Tuesday.
According to sources cited by Digi24, the emergency ordinance on measures to reduce fuel prices has received the necessary approvals from ministries, including Justice.
The emergency ordinance with measures to temper fuel prices will be adopted in Thursday's regular Government meeting, as announced by the Executive's press office.
Following today's discussions at the National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue, the Ministry of Finance will make some modifications that will be announced this evening.
The Government postponed the meeting on Tuesday for adopting the measures due to the lack of approvals from PSD ministries, and Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan stated that the Executive should approve the emergency ordinance by Thursday at the latest.
The ordinance would have been modified
Sources Antena3 state that the emergency ordinance announced by the Government was modified to exempt refineries from capping the commercial margin and to introduce fines for companies that do not limit the margin to 50% of the 2025 average.
Additionally, the Ministries of Energy and Finance proposed a new mechanism on Wednesday morning for gradually reducing excise duties on gasoline and diesel.
The mechanism involves monitoring two indicators: the evolution of the barrel price of oil and the variation in gasoline and diesel prices compared to the reference value, i.e., the level before the Iran war began and the Strait of Hormuz was blocked.
Excise duties on diesel and gasoline are expected to decrease gradually based on the evolution of these two mentioned parameters.
However, the measure will not be included in the current emergency ordinance, according to government sources.
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan emphasized that the additional VAT revenues resulting from fuel price increases will not remain in the budget but will be channeled into a financing scheme.