European values in Romania: freezing in the winter and shutting down schools

“On the Barricades” s05e29

In this extra release of “On the Barricades”, hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat discuss a major item of recent news in Romania – a country wracked with some of the highest electricity prices in Europe in the last months, and which will be potentially closing schools and other institutions as a result. The Romanian government has been forced to grant an indirect concession to energy consumers and companies, promising them to compensate for natural gas and electricity costs when these costs reach a threshold. As the National Authority for Regulation in Energy admits, this is inconsistent with the free market, European values with which Romania was supposed to align, and for which the previously centrally controlled distribution of national energy resources was dismantled. What, if any logic, is going on here? Maria explains some historical background and how this drastic systemic failure is much more than a problem that Vladimir Putin can be blamed for.