The PSD announced on Thursday that it opposes the steps taken by Prime Minister Bolojan and Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu regarding the sale of profitable state-owned companies, which play a major role in the country’s security system, indicating that it was not consulted on the sale of stakes in strategic companies, according to News.ro. The Social Democrats believe that putting up for sale the most profitable state-owned companies, in the midst of the energy and financial crisis, represents an attack on the national security of the Romanian state.
“The PSD opposes the steps taken by Prime Minister Bolojan and Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu regarding the sale of profitable state-owned companies, which play a major role in the country’s security system. Initiating such a step from the highest government level represents an act of defiance against the Romanians!”, the PSD said in an official statement.
The PSD also states that “it was not consulted on the sale of shares in strategic companies”.
“There was no discussion in the Coalition on this subject, and the PSD representatives in the Government explicitly opposed the initiative of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister”, the PSD shows. The Social Democrats believe that “the sale of the most profitable state-owned companies, in the midst of the energy and financial crisis, represents an attack on the national security of the Romanian state”.
“It is all the more serious since the general trend at the level of the member states of the European Union is to nationalize or buy back the assets of some state-owned companies, in order to consolidate their energy and economic security”, the PSD mentions.
The PSD also says that invoking the PNRR to justify this initiative represents an act of public disinformation.
“There is no obligation for Romania to sell, in the midst of the energy and financial crisis, companies such as Romgaz, Salrom, Romarm, CEC Bank, the Port of Constanta or the Bucharest Airport Company. The only company referred to is Hidroelectrica, for which Romania committed, at the time of drafting the PNRR, to list a 15% stake on the stock exchange, not 20%, as proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu. Even in this case, given the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, which put enormous pressure on Romania’s energy security, the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of European Funds should have renegotiated the respective milestone (122), not put up for sale the most profitable company in the national energy system”, emphasizes the PSD.
The PSD also says that it supports the need to restructure some state-owned companies, but categorically opposes their sale, especially in the situation where they make consistent profits and have a strategic role for the national economy.
Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu declared on Thursday that we have over 1,500 state-owned companies in Romania, many of them with historical losses of approximately 14 billion lei, she indicated that the time has come to put an end to waste, to take the necessary measures for the benefit of Romania, not the smart guys.
Gheorghiu announced that for the first time, Romania has a structured balance sheet, carried out on unitary criteria, of a pilot portfolio of 22 state-owned companies, which have accumulated cumulative budgetary debts of approximately 4.2 billion lei historical debts and have recorded aggregate net losses of approximately 1.12 billion lei in the last reported year.