This is Ponta’s first outburst of this kind against a private investor.
But in the past five years tensions had accumulated between the authorities on the one side and energy and gas distributors on the other. The latter were taken over by foreign companies such as Enel (Italy), GDF Suez (France), CEZ (The Czech Republic) and E.ON (Germany). Tensions have been fuelled by the successive demands for utility price hikes made by these operators, without a noticeable improvement in the services delivered.
Now the harsh statements were prompted by the subject of green energy, a sector subsidized by the Romanian state, which attracted investments of EUR3.5 billion in the past three years. But the bulk of the money was spent on imports of wind energy equipment from companies such as General Electric and Vestas, which do not have production facilities in Romania.
“These investments have turned into a casino, you cannot win this much even in a casino,” prime minister Victor Ponta told the head of E.ON Romania, Frank Hajdinjak, on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the manager of E.ON Romania, a company with EUR1.2 billion turnover in the country, had said if the support scheme was reduced according to the terms proposed by the government, the German group will give up EUR180 worth of wind projects in the Moldavia area.
“Where is stability? We are not playing at the casino. We are asking for a stable environment,” Hajdinjak told a press conference.
E.ON has yet to start investments in wind projects. In fact, the group has not finalized any investment in any energy production facility in Romania. E.ON has another ongoing project, in partnership with Italy’s Enel, for a 800-MW coal-fired power station, But Hajdinjak says this power station, to be located in Braila, will be built only with substantial aid from the Romanian state.
In fact, in the last 20 years one single private gas-fired thermal power station became operational, the one made by OMV Petrom (SNP.RO) in Brazi, but this facility receives aid from the Romanian state in that it is exempt from importing expensive Russian gas and only uses Romanian-produced gas.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)