Romanian authorities may block the purchase of the large electricity and gas supplier Eon Energie Romania from the Hungarian company MVM due to security reasons, including the alleged possible influence of Russia as a major gas importer for Hungary, Romania's Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja said in an interview with the British newspaper Financial Times.
In December 2024, the German concern Eon, which owns the Romanian company, announced that it had reached an agreement with MVM for the sale of a 68% stake in Eon Energie Romania. The deal is subject to the necessary regulatory approvals, which, as reported in December, could be obtained in the first half of 2025.
Suspicions have now arisen among Romanian politicians about the Hungarian company's motives, mainly because MVM offered a much higher amount - 200 million euros, with an estimated value of the stake at 50 million euros. Burduia said that Romania could block the deal, similar to Spain's decision last year to block the merger of its train manufacturer with a Hungarian company, also allegedly because of Hungary's ties with Russia.
"We saw a precedent in Spain, where a deal with a Hungarian company was rejected by a commission similar to the one operating in Romania. We need to take all this into account and then make a decision to approve or block the deal“, said Burduja.
According to him, the country's authorities will carefully study “the price of the deal, as well as its possible consequences for the energy market“. He did not rule out that during this process the point of view of security services will be sought. The minister separately stressed that Bucharest will not allow “Russian gas to enter the country“. MVM declined to comment on the details of the deal, which has not yet been completed, but stressed that the gas supplied by Russia “represents only 40% of the entire regional portfolio“. companies. The publication was unable to immediately get a comment from Eon.
Currently, Hungary still receives most of its gas under long-term contracts with Gazprom via the "Turkish Stream" pipeline and its branches through Bulgaria and Serbia. In 2022, 4.8 billion cubic meters of fuel entered the country via this route. According to Hungarian data, in 2023 this figure increased to 5.6 billion cubic meters, and in 2024 it will exceed 7 billion cubic meters.