Acting Minister of Economy, Artane Rizvanolli, has reacted to the Democratic League of Kosovo, saying that the decisions of the Energy Regulatory Office are not postponed or canceled by signatures, but can only be challenged in the courts.
The Democratic League of Kosovo has submitted a request for the annulment of two decisions by the Energy Regulatory Office, the one on increasing the price of electricity and the entry into the open market of around 1.300 businesses, but it is not expected to receive a positive response.
This request was signed by only 30 out of 120 members of the Kosovo Assembly.
MP Hykmete Bajrami, after her submission and meeting with the board of this institution, said that ERO told her that only subsidies from the Government could postpone this decision.
"It's not that we received a positive response for the review and treatment of the request. According to them, such a decision can only be postponed by the Government of Kosovo, whoever is performing the duties of ministers, since it is about a difference of about 50 million euros, which must come from the state budget subsidy, otherwise they are forced to leave the decision in force and from June 1 we will have exactly this," said Bajrami.
Rizvanolli said that the Government will not allocate 50 million euros of taxpayers' money to subsidize the electricity consumption of the 1 percent of the most powerful corporations operating in Kosovo.
"For the LDK, giving millions of taxpayers to big businesses - as they have done during the pandemic - may be a desirable policy, but they can only achieve it if they win the elections someday. The LDK knows very well that the decisions of the ERO as an independent institution are not postponed or canceled by anyone's signatures and empty declarations. They can only be challenged in court. But they have chosen a circus for the public instead of substance. If they cared about the citizens, they would not block the constitution of the Assembly, thus preventing the ERO from reporting to the Assembly. The ERO, instead of dealing with government policies, would do well to use the time to analyze in detail the causes of such a large increase in the cost of energy supply over the past year, including the 10-fold increase in transmission tariffs, and whether these could have been avoided - as I have asked them both through comments and during the meeting in the process consultative. This should be the first topic that the next parliamentary Committee on Economy will address”, Rizvanolli wrote on Facebook. “Meanwhile, as for the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, we assure the citizens that: Decisions to provide "only 50 million euros" of taxpayers to subsidize the electricity consumption of the 1% of the most powerful corporations operating in Kosovo, will NOT occur with the Kurti 2 or 3 Government; and the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, as always, will stand by the local producers affected by liberalization to ensure minimization of the impact on their competitiveness and on prices for citizens. We have worked and are working on this in all directions, and we will continue consultations with producers during the coming days and weeks”.
