Energy minister Bogdan Ivan on Wednesday said that he was holding 'intense negotiations' with the European Commission to extend the deadline by which Romania committed to close its coal mines and coal power plants, which is the end of 2025.

'I am at the headquarters of the European Commission, where I have been holding intense negotiations since this morning together with my colleagues, after we kept bringing arguments in the last two months to maintain the coal-fired power plants active in the Romanian energy system. How did we get here? We got here because 5 years ago, those who decided on Romania's behalf committed to shut down coal mines and coal power plants by the end of 2025, in exchange for billions of euros with which Romania was supposed to build new electricity production capacities. The billions of euros were received, but the gas-fired power plant projects that should replace coal-fired power plants are still on paper,' the minister of energy said in a video posted on his TikTok account.

According to him, Romanians are now paying almost the highest price for electricity in Europe, and there is also a risk that thousands of people will lose their jobs at CE Oltenia and throughout the Jiului Valley.

'Four months before theoretically decommissioning these coal-fired electricity production capacities, I came to find a solution that prevents this, because if we remove the coal-fired electricity production capacities, we will end up in a situation where the price of electricity will increase even more. We will end up in a situation where thousands of people will be left without jobs at CE Oltenia and throughout the Jiului Valley and we will end up in a situation where things that had to be done 5-4-3 years ago, projects that have been delayed for years, will be done in a very short amount of time. I sincerely believe that, after I have brought very clear arguments about how important it is for Romania to continue to keep these plants, the European Commission will understand and accept my proposal that I supported with very clear arguments and we will manage to postpone this deadline, with the very clear condition that we put in place new gas-fired electricity production capacities precisely in order to temper prices and to take into account 'the continuation of electricity in Romania', explained Ivan.

The minister of energy argued that it is very complicated to be able to solve problems from the last five years in a few months, in which only 'paper projects' have been moved and which fail to bring energy 'to Romanian companies and people's households'.

'I will keep you updated on this extremely important topic that I am treating as zero priority at this stage of my mandate,' Ivan said on TikTok. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Mariana Nica, EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)