Romanians' gas bills. The variant taken into account by the Government to avoid a shock after the lifting of the price ceiling

The government will liberalize the natural gas market from April 1, 2026, according to the current calendar. This is because there is already an infringement procedure opened by the European Commission against Romania in this sector, and the continuation of price capping may send our country to the Court of Justice of the EU, the Ministry of Energy stated for HotNews. However, the Romanian authorities are negotiating with representatives of the European Commission to introduce a new protection mechanism for domestic consumers and to grant state aid for industrial consumers.

• The President of the Fiscal Council, Daniel Daianu, warns that a liberalization of the gas market on April 1 could lead to inflation getting out of control.

The price of gas for Romanians was capped in 2022 at the level of 0.31 lei/MWh. This ceiling was supposed to be removed on April 1, 2025, but the Government decided to extend it by one year, until April 1, 2026.

After the shock last summer that Romanians had with the liberalization of the electricity market and the doubling of bills, the Government seeks to avoid a similar situation on the gas market next spring.

The liberalization will occur at the set deadline, but the Government wants to introduce new support measures for consumers, the Ministry of Energy reported, at the request of HotNews.

• “The ceiling on the price of natural gas is to end at the end of March 2026, after the end of the cold season, so that during the summer, when the consumption of natural gas is lower, the gas market will stabilize and the impact on consumers will be minimal.
• Given that, in the context of capping natural gas prices, the European Commission (COM) has already issued a reasoned opinion addressed to Romania regarding the restriction to freely set wholesale prices for certain types of electricity and gas pursuant to art. 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (reasoned opinion in case 2024/2194), a possible continuation of the postponement of liberalization may lead to a reaction of the European executive and referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), with the related consequences”, argued the representatives of the ministry.

Romania is negotiating other support measures for gas consumers in Brussels

According to them, Romania is in discussions with representatives of the European Commission for the implementation of the following measures:

• the implementation of a protection mechanism for domestic consumers of natural gas, possibly similar to the one developed for vulnerable electricity consumers, in accordance with the provisions of GEO no. 35 of June 27, 2025;
• the analysis, together with ANRE, of the possibility of introducing new measures to contribute to ensuring a better functioning of the natural gas market;
• identification of possible state aid measures for certain categories of industrial consumers for which the weight of the price of natural gas is significant in production costs (with the involvement of the Ministry of Economy, Digitalization, Entrepreneurship and Tourism and the Competition Council);
• assessment of the potential impact at the level of thermal energy producers for SACETs (centralized heating system – no) and the identification of solutions to mitigate the increase in the price of thermal energy, especially in the winter period.

The Minister of Energy, Bogdan Ivan, referred the other day to the liberalization of the gas market, stating that he is considering a “smooth transition to normal market conditions”.

“Under the current conditions, for this winter there are no reasons for consumers to pay higher rates. We have the gas price capping scheme until March 31, 2026, and after March 31, 2026 I am making sure from now on, together with the companies and with the legislation I have at hand, that we will not have this steep increase, on the model we had during the last summer for electricity. For gas we will have a smooth transition to normal market conditions, when the capping scheme ends,” Ivan said on November 25.

Companies say there is no reason to worry about a price explosion

Companies say the situation is different from what happened last summer with electricity bills, as gas prices have fallen to levels similar to the cap anyway.

Dana Dărăban, executive director of the Federation of Associations of Energy Utilities Companies (ACUE), argued that the sector needs a clear decision from the state, so that companies can make their strategies and come up with offers to consumers.

• “This is important when there are concerns at the market level about the timing of the exit from the capping scheme. What happens: when you give contradictory messages to the market, you actually and rightly create an additional risk. And when someone says that we exit the scheme on April 1 and someone else says that it is not good to exit, the market, especially with the Romanian state's history of “last minute” decisions, the market creates a tendency to wait.
• The reality tells us that the amounts to be settled are very small, many come from the previous regularizations, and this means that the free market has reached the ceiling price, so there should be no reason for concern and the companies in the market should be left to make their plans, so that customers can enjoy good price offers starting on April 1″, said Dărăban.

On the other hand, the president of the Fiscal Council, Daniel Daianu, had recently warned that the authorities should consider not liberalizing the natural gas tariff in April 2026, given that the National Bank is struggling with inflationary expectations that could get out of control.

• “The budget deficit holds the monetary policy hostage or prisoner. The level of the monetary policy rate here, only in Hungary, is still 6.5%, it is very high and many wonder why it is so high. Well, it is very high because you have a very large budget deficit and you have an unusual inflation. And now we also have this spike (peak, no) caused by the package of measures, which was inevitable. Nor can the policy rate decrease quickly monetary.
• I think it would make sense, for example, it would be considered not to liberalize the natural gas tariff in April 2026, because the National Bank is struggling with inflationary expectations that could get out of control”, said Dăianu in a specialist conference, quoted by Agerpres.

Romania, sub European Commission infringement procedure for prolonging the price cap too long

Romania also has the pressure of an infringement procedure opened in 2024 by the European Commission against Romania, due to the prolonged capping of the price of electricity and natural gas.

In 2021-2022, most European countries took measures to protect consumers, following the price crisis at that time, but only Romania extended the support measures after 2023.

What the European Executive said:

• The producer ceilings are incompatible with Directive (EU) 2019/944 and Regulation (EU) 2019/943 on the internal electricity market, as well as with Directive 2009/73/EC on common rules for the internal market of natural gas.
• The measures in question limit the freedom of electricity and gas producers to determine their wholesale prices in Romania.
• These measures restrict the fundamental principles of free price formation as well as free cross-border trade in wholesale electricity and gas markets.
• The measures have an effect equivalent to a quantitative restriction on exports.