The European Commission (EC) will reportedly give Romania four more months to appoint permanent management under competitive procedures at 48 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the energy sector, after the Romanian government agreed to double the fine paid by the country and the penalties charged to those responsible (ministers) if the milestone set under the Resilience Plan with a EUR 227 million financing attached is not met by March 31, 2026, according to Profit.ro.
This is one of the milestones with a total of some EUR 869 million financing attached (including EUR 841 million of grants and EUR 55 million of loans), supposed to be met by November 28, after they were already deferred by six months by the European Commission.
The other two main milestones, also likely to fail, are amending the special pensions legislation (EUR 231 million financing) and appointing a management to the agency supervising the state-owned enterprises (SOE, EUR 330 million). It remains unclear whether the Commission would be ready to demonstrate the same flexibility for other key milestones due November 28.
According to a regulatory act prepared by the government for this purpose and analysed by Profit.ro, currently about 48 central public enterprises have exceeded the maximum 12-month provisional term, as a result of the successive appointment of provisional administrators.
The lack of management bodies may lead to their dissolution or liquidation. According to the Companies Law no. 31/1990, republished, with subsequent amendments and completions, companies that no longer have statutory bodies or whose statutory bodies can no longer meet, may be dissolved, at the request of any interested person or of the National Trade Register Office.
As a result, the government has drafted a regulatory act that allows ministries that are conducting selection procedures for administrator positions to complete these procedures by March 31, 2026, and appoint new, provisional administrators.
AMEPIP will also be obliged to order checks of the respective selection procedures, to identify the guilty persons and to apply fines, which range between RON 10,000 and 200,000, respectively 15% to 30% of the remuneration of the head of the tutelary public authority or administrators.
iulian@romania-insider.com
(Photo source: Natanael Alfredo/Dreamstime.com)
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