On Monday, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu had a meeting with a delegation of OMV Petrom, during which they discussed the Black Sea gas exploitation project, Neptun Deep. Government sources told Digi24.ro that Prime Minister Ciolacu told the OMV chiefs that the offshore law will not change and that there can be no discussion of this subject, given that Austria opposes Romania’s accession to the Schengen Area.
According to a press release from the Executive, the OMV Petrom delegation was led by Alfred Stern, CEO of the OMV group. According to the cited sources, Ciolacu told the CEO of OMV that the offshore law will not change.
Moreover, the prime minister specified that such a topic cannot even be discussed, given that Romanians have a negative perception of Austria’s position on the subject of Romania’s accession to the Schengen Area.
Also, government sources say that Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has conveyed that he totally agrees with the stance of the Romanian society regarding Austria.
As for the Schengen topic, according to the quoted sources, the prime minister conveyed to the head of OMV that it is also in the company’s interest that Austria and Chancellor Nehammer give up the veto against our country.
According to the press release issued by the Government, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu showed that the Romanian state strongly supports this strategic project in which OMV Petrom is associated with the state company Romgaz, a project that will bring energy independence to our country.
“It is the most important energy project, an investment of around 4 billion euros, which will put us in a position to become an energy actor at the European level, exploiting reserves estimated at a minimum of 100 billion cubic meters of gas – as much as the consumption Romania for almost 10 years”, stated Marcel Ciolacu.
The Head of the Executive expressed his hope that the attitude of the Austrian Prime Minister, Karl Nehammer, to continue to completely unjustifiably oppose Romania’s accession to Schengen, will not affect the image of OMV Petrom in Romania, arguing that such a situation would be undesirable for both parties, also indicates the cited source.
“We will continue to support the Neptun Deep project and move forward based on the current form of the offshore law, just as Romania will continue to support its arguments regarding the accession to the Schengen area, including in the European courts, if Austria does not change its position”, Prime Minister Ciolacu also said.
Bravo Bravo Bravo. I had enough of the Austrians. If they don’t vote for us, I swear I will cancel me booking at Vienna for Christmas. OK?