The Association of Swimmers requires the reforming of ANRE from the foundation: “Not only the huge salaries are the problem. The ANRE president does not account for anyone”

The real problem of the National Energy Regulatory Authority are not only the huge salaries of those in the management, but also the way the institution regulates and influences the market, say the representatives of the Association of Swimter and Energy Communities (APCE).

“Established in 1998, by GEO no. 29, ANRE was thought of as an impartial referee, with the role of regulatory, monitoring and control of electricity and natural gas markets.

• Today, however, the institution has transformed from the arbitrator into a player who plays on the side of producers, suppliers and energy distributors – those who, in fact, ensure their financing.
• An institution that does not respond to anyone. If they do not want to reduce their salaries, the Government of Romania has nothing to do, ”according to a statement of the APCA.

Prosumers refer to the fact that, as the ANRE's operation law currently shows, these institutions cannot be obliged to reduce their salaries. This can only be possible if the Parliament changes the operating law.

APCE: President ANRE does not account for anyone in Romania

According to its statute, the National Energy Regulatory Authority – ANRE, is an autonomous administrative authority, with legal personality, under parliamentary control, fully financed from own revenues, decision -making, organizational and functional.

The ANRE President presents to the Parliament the annual activity report for the previous year until July 31, which is subsequently debated, without being subject to vote, in the joint meeting of the two Houses of Parliament.

“In other words, ANRE does not account for anyone in Romania. Decides what he wants, when he wants and how he wants, without a real mechanism of democratic control. Who pays the generous salaries from ANRE? Exactly the regulated.”

ANRE's expenses are covered from their own income, from:

• Rates for licenses, authorizations and attestations,
• Annual contributions imposed on energy economic operators,
• funds from international bodies.

“Thus, paradoxically, exactly suppliers, producers and energy distributors-those that ANRE should control, amend for abuse or regulate them-are the ones who supply their budget. The situation generates a structural dependence and makes impartiality impossible,” the APCE statement said.

According to prosumers, ANRE management has been, for almost three decades, the result of some scenes political agreements.

“The result? An institution that protects the interests of the great energy actors and in which consumers and prosumers in Romania lose constantly, without real arbitrator on the area of energy regulations. No doubt it is one of the main causes of the high energy price that the Romanians support.”

The Association of Swingers and Energy Communities (APCE) asks the Romanian Government and Parliament to trigger a structural reform of ANRE, which includes:

• Appointments based on competence and public exams, not political negotiations;
• Restructuring the financing mechanism, so that ANRE does not depend on those they should regulate;
• The introduction of a real parliamentary control, through an annual report subject to the vote and a control commission with the participation of the civil society;
• Efficiency of ANRE activity, through clear performance and transparency indicators.