The head of Telekom Romania Nikolai Beckers has questioned whether its rival, RCS&RDS, has permits for the development of the electricity distribution networks currently underway in Constanta and several other cities in Romania.

Quoted by Ziarul Financiar daily, Bekers wondered “why the state is not doing anything [to stop this]”.

The statement came after Bekers complained about the “bureaucracy, incompetence and inertia” that hinders the development of infrastructure works in Romania.

Telekom Romania is developing a broadband network for remote areas, under a project financed by some €80mn from the EU budget. The deadline, at the end of this year, is at risk due to the large number of permits the company had to collect, Bekers explained. The government would have to return the money to the EU budget in this case, he added.

Bekers was particularly concerned regarding the expansion of RCS&RDS into the electricity distribution market. “It is going to be a brutal surprise for the electricity companies when RCS&RDS starts actively selling”, Bekers warned. The company is targeting not office buildings but residential areas, he added.

RCS&RDS earlier announced plans to expand into the electricity distribution business. “There is no competition [on the electricity distribution market], it was like the telecom market was 15 years ago,” the development manager of RCS&RDS, Valentin Popoviciu, said in April at a conference.

The electricity distribution market in Romania is liberalised, and users have a choice and we want to be an alternative, he said at the time.