OMV sued Romania at the Court of Arbitration due to a particularity in the offshore law regarding the sale of gas from the Black Sea. It is about the pre-emption clause that forces any company to try to sell the exploited gas to our country first, and if Romania refuses, to switch to other buyers.
Virgil Popescu is the former Minister of Energy and one of those who signed the offshore law. In his opinion, the Austrians have no chance of winning the lawsuit filed against our country, as he explained in the program Country Project: Romania from Prima News. Punctual, OMV contests article 20 of the contract with the Romanian state.
OMV sued Romania
“It’s a clause that I wrote in the offshore law, obviously discussed in coalition with the two presidents, Nicolae Ciucă and Marcel Ciolacu, with Kelemen Hunor and the minority leader, all four signing the offshore law. (..)
My last discussion with them was very clear, it doesn’t change, the prime minister at the time said the same, I’m glad that today in the same formula, the PSD president said the same”, declared Virgil Popescu.
The former minister insisted in the televised intervention that “the Offshore Law is a good law, it has a very clear stability clause” and it applies to all companies that invest or have ongoing investments in the field of natural gas from the Black Sea. All have the obligation to offer gas sales contracts to the Romanian state through the State Reserves Agency. The detail according to which, in the context of an energy crisis, restrictions on the prices and quantities of natural gas can be introduced does not sound very good for investors either.
“I for one would not say that we have to give something in exchange for Schengen. No, it is our right, Romania’s, to enter Schengen and we will fight and I am convinced that we will enter at some point.
I have discussed numerous times at the Energy Council with the Austrian Minister of Energy who is not from the same party as Prime Minister Nehammer, she is from the Greens and she told me that she and her party support Romania’s entry into Schengen and she is sorry for what it happens”, emphasized Popescu.
The official continued the argument related to giving up some rights or property for Schengen. “Economic diplomacy probably means the same thing, to promote the interests of the Romanian state. I for one would not give up anything for our right to enter Schengen, it is our right and must be obtained”, added the PNL deputy.
