March 7 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said on Thursday it has sent a letter of formal notice to Romania for failing to correctly implement certain requirements of the gas directive and the security of gas supply regulation.
The instruments provided in the specific legislation aim at ensuring the competitiveness in the EU gas markets while guaranteeing the secure supply to households and other customers requiring special protection, the Commission said in its March infringement package.
After analysing legislative measures adopted by Romania in December, the Commission found that the system of regulated wholesale prices newly introduced in the Romanian gas market goes against the EU legal requirements. The Commission also said it considers that these measures are not adequate to sustainably achieve the objective of protecting household customers from excessive price increases.
A government decree issued in late December forces domestic natural gas producers to sell their output mainly to suppliers at the regulated price of 68 lei ($16/14 euro) per MWh until 2022, down from 90 lei previously. It also enforces a 2% tax on turnover for energy companies that will be retroactive for 2018.
Romania stands to lose 2.26 billion lei in taxes this year after the government capped natural gas prices, Deloitte said earlier this month in a study commissioned by the Romanian Petroleum Exploration and Production Companies Association (ROPEPCA).
EU's executive body also urged Romania to apply rules on payment services, by introducing strict security requirements for electronic payments. To date, Romania has not transposed this Directive into national law, although member states agreed to do so by January 13 2018. As a result, the Commission is issuing a reasoned opinion to Romania, requesting it to bring its legislation in line with EU law. If it fails to act within two months, the case may be referred to the Court of Justice of the EU.
(1 euro=4.7448 lei)