Accordingly to a Press Release dated July, the 13th, 2011, the European Commission has found Romania's plan to support the production of energy from renewable energy sources in line with EU state aid rules, in particular, because it creates clear incentives for an increased use of renewable energy, while containing safeguards to limit distortions of competition. The scheme is designed to assist Romania in reaching by 2020 the mandatory national renewable energy target set under EU legislation.

"The green certificate scheme is a market based mechanism, which will encourage investments in renewable energy in Romania. It will thus support Romania's objective to reach the 2020 renewable energy targets without unduly distorting competition", said Commission Vice-President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia.

The Commission found the proposed scheme in line with the 2008 Environmental Aid Guidelines rules concerning operating aid for renewable energy sources.

Green certificates are granted to electricity producers for each MWh generated from wind, hydro, biomass, landfill gas, sewage plant treatment gas or solar. If the energy is produced in high efficiency co-generation plants, a bonus is applied. The certificates issued by the State to the producers can be sold to the energy suppliers on a specific market (independent of the electricity market). The electricity suppliers have the obligation to acquire annually a certain number of green certificates. If they fail to do so they must pay a penalty. The penalties are collected by the transmission system operator and transferred to the Romanian Environmental Fund, which will use them for support to small individual producers of electricity from renewable sources.

Behind the Commission’s decision lies Romania’s efforts to end a two years period of legislative void and investment uncertainty in the field of renewable energy. The legal frame in this area consists mainly in the Law no. 220/2008 regarding the promotion of the production of renewable energy, aiming at being in line with the Directive no. 2009/28/CE regarding the promotion of using energy from renewable sources. Even though the Law no. 220/2008 has eneterd into force in november 2008 and its Application Regulations have been drafted by the Government, the key-clauses in the area of the financial support through fiscal facilities and/or the green certificates system have been – until now – completely unaplicable.

The main reason for this situation consisted in the lack of enforcement of several necessary and specific regulations by the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority, as well as the discussions related to the (in)compatibility of the above mentioned support measures of the green certificates system with the EU State Aid Regulations.

With regard to this last cause of “malfunction”, Romania has Notified the Commission concerning the support scheme for the producers of renewable energy, with a view to unblock and allow the application of the Law no. 220/2008.

Starting with the positive Commission’s decision from Jully the 13th, everybody in the Romanian energy area has turned the eyes on the Guvernment, who is normally in charge with the immediate implementation of the effects of this important decision. Practically, the Application Regulations of the Law no. 220/2008 should be enforced, together with an entire secondary legislation (which in fact already exists mainly, but it only must be published in the Official Journal).

The importance of the EU’s decision of approving the Romanian Green Certificates renewable energy support scheme lies in the possibility of the investors who already implemented energy projects (especially wind energy) to see more clear the return of their investment and also to encourage others who wither hesitate to enter on this market or have already announced their decision to leave Romania, due to the legislative uncertainty. It is now the turn of the Romanian authorities to transform into reality the huge renewable energetic potential of Romania. Here there has already been built the largest wind park on earth in Europe and the interest to built the largest in the world has already been made officially public. Hopefully, the paradox of a the great energetic potential and of the (too long) legislative uncertainty period shall soon end!