Romania has to build up the minimum crude oil and oil products stocks for this year and the residual ones for 2009, by December 31, to prevent the initiation of an infringement procedure by the European Commission (EC), Mediafax informs. Romania committed, during the negotiations for the European Union accession, to build up minimum stocks of crude oil and oil products, in stages, and was granted a transition period until December 31. The National Administration of State Reserves and Special Affairs (ANRSPS) has failed to build up the stocks in 2009, as it did not have the necessary funds in its own budget, nor was it allotted the necessary funds from the state budget, according to the background note to a bill for an emergency ordinance drafted by the Economy Ministry, for the building of the minimum, safety, crude oil and oil products stocks by the end of 2011. As a consequence, Oil Supply Group, the EU body which monitors oil stocks in the EU member states, informed the Bucharest authorities that, although Romania “is in infringement procedure at present”, the European Commission “will not initiate the said procedure by the end of the transition procedure, that is, by December 31, 2011”.
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