After Olguța Vasilescu and Ilie Bolojan contracted on the topic of a large state company, what does the Ministry of Energy say

Lia Olguța Vasilescu, the mayor of Craiova, accused Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan on several occasions, in January, of blocking heating investments in Craiova and of deliberately bankrupting the company Electrocentrale Craiova. For his part, the prime minister stated that the sum of 168 million euros was allocated from the PNRR for investments that have not been made and, in addition, the company borrowed 70 million euros from EximBank, money that “will never be repaid”, according to ProTV News.

Electrocentrale Craiova SA was established on September 30, 2022, by the separation from Complexul Energetic Oltenia (CEO). The Romanian state, through the Ministry of Energy, owns over 77% of the shares, the rest being owned by Fondul Proprietatea and other minority shareholders.

The outsourcing of the thermal power plant was imposed by a decision of the European Commission from January 2022, as part of the conditions regarding the state aid granted to the Oltenia Energy Complex.

HotNews asked the Ministry of Energy, the majority shareholder of Electrocentrale Craiova, to explain the situation in Craiova.

The PNRR project that never started

Regarding the money from the PNRR, the Ministry of Energy said that the procedures have been cancelled.

In 2023, Electrocentrale Craiova signed a PNRR financing contract with the Ministry of Energy for the construction of a new gas-fired, high-efficiency cogeneration plant of 295 MW. The total value of the project was 1.28 billion lei, and the non-reimbursable financing available from the PNRR amounted to 825.8 million lei.

The project was supposed to replace old coal-fired capacity built between 1977 and 1989. But after two tenders with no admissible bids, the proceedings were canceled and the contract is due to be terminated. The Ministry stated that Electrocentrale Craiova did not collect any leu from this financing.

“Currently, this contract is to be terminated, as a result of the request made by the company, due to the fact that, after the organization of two tenders for contracting the construction works of the new power plant, no admissible offer was submitted, so the procurement procedures were canceled”, stated the Ministry of Energy.

Eximbank credit and outstanding loans

Regarding the loan from Exim Banca Românească, the Ministry of Energy explained that it was intended to guarantee the loan of carbon dioxide emission certificates from the Oltenia Energy Complex.

In 2024, based on a memorandum approved by the Government, Exim Banca Românească granted, on behalf of the state, a loan of 350 million lei to the company Electrocentrale Craiova. The loan, due in September 2025, was intended to guarantee a loan of CO₂ emission certificates from Complexul Energetic Oltenia SA (CEO).

For this loan, CET Craiova established mortgages on real and movable assets, and the total costs with interest, commissions, assessments and insurances reached approximately 75 million lei. In addition, the company paid the CEO a commission of 720,000 euros for the loan of the certificates.

From the total of almost one million CO₂ certificates borrowed, the company managed to return only 145,000 certificates, between September 2024 and August 2025.

The granting of the 350 million lei loan was approved by the Interministerial Committee for Financing, Guarantees and Insurance (CIFGA).

How Electrocentrale Craiova entered insolvency

Against the background of financial difficulties, Electrocentrale Craiova failed to return the emission certificates related to the production from 2024 on time, the Ministry of Energy explained. That is why the Administration of the Environmental Fund issued, in October 2025, an imposition decision by which it established penalties of 596.4 million lei.

According to the Ministry of Energy, the financial situation was critical since the end of 2024, the company had negative net assets of over 337 million lei, losses of over 400 million lei and total debts of 1.29 billion lei.

In December 2025, the Dolj Court ordered the opening of general insolvency proceedings, appointing a consortium of insolvency practitioners as provisional receiver.

“According to the solution pronounced by the syndic judge, provisional judicial administrator, the consortium of insolvency practitioners formed by Infinexa Restructuring – Bucharest Branch SPRL and the Insolvency House GMC SPRL was appointed”, stated the Ministry of Energy.

The Ministry of Energy tried to grant new aids, but they were not approved by the Bolojan Government

The Ministry of Energy claims that it has taken several steps to support Electrocentrale Craiova SA On September 22, 2025, the Ministry of Energy submitted to decision-making transparency a draft Government decision regarding the allocation of 350 million lei from the Budgetary Reserve Fund, an amount intended to finance the company's activity. However, the project did not meet the necessary approvals for approval in the Government.

Later, in October 2025, the ministry promoted a Memorandum regarding urgent measures for the continuation of the activity of Electrocentrale Craiova SA. The document was returned unapproved by the General Secretariat of the Government.

In January, Lia Olguța Vasilescu said that she asked Ilie Bolojan “to grant at least the sum of 50 million lei for Electrocentrale, a government company, to last at least two more years without breakdowns until the construction of a new production capacity of Craiova City Hall, developed in partnership with an investor, if he still rejected all solutions and requests”.

The unions also accuse the state of not supporting the company, of not intervening to support the payment of CO2 certificates, costs imposed by the European Union, which led to significant losses.

“They did not get involved at all in particular regarding the payment of CO2 certificates, which any coal-based energy producing company cannot support. This is too big a burden for us,” said the union leader from Electrocentrale Craiova, Cătălin Mihai, told Agerpres.

According to him, Electrocentrale Craiova is, now, a very old installation, in which no investment was made for re-technology, and what is happening now is the effect of the authorities' lack of involvement or a faulty management for many years before.