Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has denied any connection to a case in which businessman Ioan Niculae, the owner of agriculture company InterAgro, is investigated for having influenced state authorities to sell him cheaper gas for his fertilizer plants.

More than 40 other people are being investigated in this case, including former economy ministry Adrian Videanu. The damage amounts to EUR 120 million. So far, no official information about Ciolos's involvement in this case has appeared.

The local media reported in recent days that Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, who was agriculture minister at the time of the investigated deeds, allegedly lobbied to his colleagues in the Government to continue offering cheaper gas to chemical plants.

However, the Prime Minister denies any involvement, saying that an agriculture minister doesn’t negotiate nor prepare normative acts related to the industrial policy and gas prices.

“I was the agriculture minister at that time, and I don’t think the minister of agriculture sets the price of gas, and I also don’t believe that the agriculture minister negotiates or prepares normative acts related to the industry policy. Of course, when someone asks you if you want cheaper fertilizers for farmers, chemical fertilizers that are made using gas, it’s normal that, as an agriculture minister, you are interested in creating an opportunity for farmers to have access to cheaper fertilizers,” Ciolos said, reports local Digi24.

Local newspaper Evenimentul Zilei wrote earlier this week that, in 2008, Ciolos proposed economy minister Varujan Vosganian to keep a measure that allowed local fertilizer plants to buy only cheap gas from the domestic production while all other gas consumers had to buy a mix of domestic and import gas which was more expensive. Ciolos apparently motivated his proposal saying that "this measure creates the commercial premises for the price of chemical fertilizers to be kept constant, or even reduced.”

In the same letter, Ciolos appreciated, citing employers' organizations in the field of chemical fertilizers, that the application of this measure between February 1 and July 31, 2008 “supported the fertilizer industry, the fertilizer prices remaining at a constant level in this period, with some products even recording price reductions of up to 20%.”

According to DIICOT, from December 2006 until September 2010, economy minister Varujan Vosganian and Adriean Videanu approved and supported in Government meetings six minister orders and three memorandums to support the financial interests of the Interagro group, owned by Ioan Niculae. The two ministers apparently ordered state-owned gas producer Romgaz to sell gas to Interagro at a discount compared to other clients although Interagro had big depts to Romgaz, according to Agerpres.

Ioan Niculae was released from prison in July this year, after serving a third of a jail conviction in another corruption case. Niculae spent little over ten months in prison for illegally financing local politician Mircea Geoana’s presidential campaign in 2009.

News about Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos's alleged involvement in the Interagro case emegred less than a month before the parliamentary elections in Romania. Although Ciolos doesn't run for a seat in the Parliament, two local political parties are using his image hoping to win the elections, namely the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Save Romania Union (USR). These two parties have pledged to support Ciolos for a new mandate if they get the majority in the Parliament.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com