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PSD-ALDE coalition reaches agreement on offshore law: 50 pct of gas production to be traded on energy exchange
The ruling coalition's Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) reached common ground regarding the amendments to the offshore law, with PSD floor leader, deputy Daniel Suciu stating that the coalition meeting had decided that 50 percent of the Black Sea gas production shall be traded on the Romanian exchange, and a maximum 30 percent of the additional income tax revenues be deductible.
The decision was taken Wednesday after Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Liviu Dragnea and PSD floor leader Daniel Suciu met with ALDE representatives Andrei Gerea and Toma Petcu.
"At the behest and request of our colleagues from ALDE, we met again in an attempt to come to an agreement on technical issues. There weren't many points of divergence, not even as regards the percentages, we had to discuss several technical issues related to authorizations. At least PSD's stance remained the same, and I think that from this perspective, our ALDE colleagues can say what their conclusion is. This wasn't a subject of fracture inside the coalition, not in the least so, we just had a dispassionate, exclusively technical discussion seeking one interest alone, that of the Romanian state, and for Romania to stand to gain as much as possible from this law," Suciu said.
He mentioned that the decision was made to have "50 percent of the Black Sea gas production traded on the Romanian exchange, and a maximum 30 percent of the operators' additional income tax revenues deduced". "It's the version you already know and it stayed like that," added Suciu. The PSD floor leader said that, in principle, the joint commissions will meet next Tuesday for fresh discussions.
The Chamber of Deputies decided on October 3, by a vote of 210 and one abstention to send the report on the offshore bill back to the expert commissions for one week. The decision was taken at the request of leader of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania Kelemen Hunor. The committees for industry, budget and administration adopted the report on the offshore bill the week before.