Together with our colleagues from Dixi Group Ukraine, Watchdog.MD Moldova and World Experience for Georgia, Expert Forum participated in a comparative study on the transparency in the energy sector, as of 2021. One of the goals was to see to what extent EU membership contributes significantly or not for good governance in the sector, compared ···
The International Energy Transparency Index, developed by Dixi Group Ukraine, expands the range of participating countries and becomes an established practice in the region. For the first time, Romania will join the watchdog project which so far provided monitoring and recommendations for the energy sectors of Ukraine and in 2020 was scaled up to Moldova ···
The following report analyzes the capacity (governance and performance) of energy (gas and electricity) regulators in Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine and “benchmarks” them to the Romanian energy regulator. Energy regulators in countries that follow EU’s Energy Directives of the Third Energy Package – EU members, as well as members of the Energy Community and countries ···
Can we measure corruption and capture in state-owned companies, beyond impressions, opinion polls and indicators of compliance with governance standards? Is there a way in which we can gauge the level of resources that are misused or simply wasted, can we compare across countries and in time, and is there a correlation between the governance ···
Despite 25 years of reforms towards a market economy, the Romanian public sector companies remain a major fiscal and economic burden. When poorly governed, such companies distort the competition in various markets. They may purchase overpriced supplies or sell goods and services at below market prices, in contracts concluded non-competitively with preferential partners. By such deals, ···
In a renewed effort to keep inefficient power plants going, the government issued an Ordinance which simply blows up the whole energy market. Shrewdly disguised as a matter of “security of electricity supply” (a “strategic” objective, of course), the Ordinance does nothing to help system security, but allows bankrupt power plants to survive together with ···
More and more public commentators say there is no need to sign a new agreement with the IMF. Most recently, even the president of the Senate, Crin Antonescu, reasserted these days the PNL position from 2006-2008, namely that Romania does not need assistance from international partners such as the IMF, which brings austerity and hampers ···
It’s time to learn from others’ mistakes: sooner or later, energy reform should be done and completed. Sooner and cogently is preferable to later on with oversized costs. See how is to be done in the report attached here (Romanian only): Pol-Brief-20 Given that energy is a sensitive subject, price increases can overthrow a government. ···
Our watchdog project in energy in Romania, started in 2010 under SAR and continued in 2012 under Expert Forum, was quite successful in improving some issues of governance in the energy sector, to the extent this is possible in a very corrupt environment. Some of our recommendations were implemented in the laws; issues of public ···
So, the Government came up with the idea to introduce an additional tax for “windfall profits” resulting from liberalization of the gas and electricity markets. That is, prices will increase during the liberalization of the energy market, companies (public and private) will get additional revenue, and this top-up income will be taxed more. The idea ···