A support mechanism for vulnerable consumers will be established for the period after July 1 by the Ministry of Energy together with the Ministry of Labour, and an update of the thresholds that define vulnerability is also necessary in order to expand the range of beneficiaries, said Minister of Energy Sebastian Burduja at a specialist event on Monday.

„For the period after July 1 – and I’m referring here to electricity – we are preparing, together with the Ministry of Labour – three very detailed technical meetings have already taken place – this mechanism for consumers facing energy poverty, so vulnerable consumers, those who are struggling, for whom paying utility bills is a burden. We believe that the thresholds defining this vulnerability need to be updated. This is the Ministry of Energy’s point of view. So, an expansion of the range of beneficiaries, to cover all possible cases. Also, during this period, we want to increase liquidity in the market – for producers to sell more, suppliers to buy more, and perhaps even traders to trade more electricity, so that prices can evolve fairly,” Sebastian Burduja told the Energy Forum organised by Financial Intelligence.

He stressed that electricity and gas prices have seen significant increases since the beginning of this year.

„Everyone is talking about the compensation and price cap scheme, market evolution – and here, I’m confident we will manage to find the best solution together. It’s known that electricity and gas prices have increased significantly since the beginning of this year, following the halt of Russian gas transit through Ukraine. What happened in Sumy, the tragedy on Palm Sunday, once again shows that those who invaded Ukraine have no limits, no humanity – and the decisions supporting Ukraine’s effort to resist this armed aggression are the right ones. Of course, these have had repercussions for Romania and the rest of Europe, including gas price increases of up to 60% and electricity price hikes of 25-30% across Europe. In Romania’s case, the continuation of this compensation and price cap scheme until July 1 for electricity and April 1 next year for gas is based on the goal of protecting Romanians,” the minister of Energy added.

AGERPRES