Romania’s President Traian Basescu has returned to lawmakers the bill that reduces the support to investors who operate energy generation capacities on renewable resources, HotNews online publication announced.

The bill amends the legislation related to state aid but the European Commission has not been previously notified about it as required by the Accession Treaty, the presidency explained. Basescu’s move is therefore meant to adjust the procedure under which the support is reduced – and is not against the reduction itself.

In July 2013, the government endorsed the ordinance 57/2013 that amends the law 220/2008 on the renewable energy support mechanism. The lawmakers approved the emergency ordinance in the autumn and sent it to President Basescu for promulgation. Essentially, the ordinance 57/2013 withholds part of the support – namely the number of tradable green certificates, given to the operators of renewable energy generation capacities.

The main stipulations of the emergency ordinance, as announced by the government on its website in June are:

1. capping the licensing of RES-E generation capacities under the support system in line with the targets set under the National Action plan for the support of renewable energy;
2. postponing the issuance of part of the tradable green certificates to entitled recipients, licensed generators that use renewable resources. The number of certificates to remain frozen [withheld] is 1 for micro-hydro and wind [from 3 and 2 respectively, currently] and 2 for solar [from 6 currently]. The frozen certificates are to be issued starting March 2017 for solar and small hydro and as of January 2018 for wind;
3. the market regulator will run twice a year checks for overcompensation – aimed at establishing whether power generators achieve profitability above the targets set in the law. In case an overcompensation is found, the number of tradable certificates [for investors commissioning the plants in the future] will be cut down accordingly. Notably, the amended text specifies that the correction for overcompensation will be enforced immediately [and not with a delay, as stipulated in the prior version].