Romanian Power Holdings Setup Started In Feb – Ministry

„The reorganization of the energy sector by setting up the two power holdings is a process that actually started in February 2009 and not a project we are just approaching. During several months, talks were held with all the interested parties, namely coalition partners, social dialog partners, the business environment, the civil society, the academic environment, and deputy Iulian Iancu was among the people who attended these talks,” the Economy Ministry said in a statement.

Iancu said Sunday the government led by Prime Minister Emil Boc should only manage the current problems of the energy system, while the merger of the companies in the energy sector is too important a decision to be made by an outgoing government.

He criticized Friday’s shareholders meeting of several state-run energy companies to approve their merger. Economy Ministry representatives voted Friday, during the companies’ shareholders meetings, in favor of merging thermal power producers Turceni, Rovinari and Craiova with brown coal mining company SNLO, nuclear energy producer Nuclearelectrica and part of hydropower generator Hidroelectrica.

These companies should form one of the national power holdings, according to the government’s plan. The government plans to reorganize the country’s energy production by creating two national power holdings to include assets of all state-run energy companies. The two companies will be named „Electra” and „Energetica.”

The merger project was published in June on the ministry’s website, and, since then, it was publicly debated several times. According to the ministry, some of the issues raised during the public debates have already been adressed and included in the project.