EU warns Romania to remove gas price cap or face legal action
Gas and power bills for Romanian households, small businesses and public institutions have been capped up to certain monthly consumption levels since November 2021, with suppliers compensated for the difference.
In a notice published on Wednesday, the European Commission said the policy violates EU rules on the free formation of wholesale gas prices, since Romania's measure obliges firms to sell part of their production at a fixed wholesale price.
"Regulated prices at the level of the EU-wide wholesale market distort price signals and effective market functioning," the Commission said.
European wholesale gas prices began climbing in 2021 after Russia limited deliveries. Prices soared to record highs the following year when Moscow further slashed supplies after its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Romania's government has two months to respond to the EU warning, after which the Commission can refer the case to the EU's top court, if the matter is unresolved.
Ahead of its May 18 presidential election run-off, Romania currently has an interim government which cannot issue decrees or introduce policies.
Former Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu resigned on Monday after hard-right eurosceptic George Simion won the first round of the presidential election re-run. The president elected this month will appoint a new prime minister.
In February, the former government extended the gas price cap for a year, and prolonged the power price limits until June, to rein in consumers' bills.
Romania produces almost all the gas it consumes domestically, through producers OMV Petrom, state-owned Romgaz and offshore producer Black Sea Oil & Gas.
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'So he is certainly having a much more found impact on the world than he did first time round, for better and worse.' Mr Stewart admits he 'underestimated' one of Mr Trump's 'strengths', which he argues is his ability to quickly change his mind. He believes, that, in the coming days, Mr Trump could, 'go from being a very, very fervent supporter of Israel's policies in Gaza to changing to being a very fervent supporter of the interests of Palestinians in Gaza.' The President's public support for the Israeli government has softened in recent weeks, whilst Mr Trump has also expressed concern about mass hunger in Gaza, saying images of emaciated children in the region showed there was 'real starvation'. 'We could well see, over the next week or two, a complete transformation in American policy towards the Middle East, which almost no other president would have been able to do,' Mr Stewart says. But the former Tory leadership contender is also fiercely critical of the President, adding: 'I think in the end, the damage to his allies will be profound. 'I think that's the real sadness here, which is that the West, the UK, Europe, Japan, South Korea, these countries that have been American allies since the Second World War have been through this incredible roller coaster with his shift on his policy on Ukraine, his challenges to NATO, his tariffs. 'This stuff I don't think America will ever recover from because none of America's allies will be able to rely on America in the future in the way they did in the past.' He concludes: 'He's the most consequential, interesting president of our lifetime. 'But I'm afraid he's also a fundamentally flawed person who in the end history will conclude has done an incredible amount of damage to the global order and to the interest of American allies and democracies and to the global economy.'
