The Minister of Mining and Energy of Serbia, Zorana Mihajlović, said today that the way of functioning in “Elektroprivreda Srbije” (EPS) must change and that the company should be the center of the economy and the initiator of development.
She said on Prva TV that the state provided enough energy sources, thanks to financial stability, and that it maintained the electricity system.
“It is a company of all of us, huge money is created and spent. EPS must be a healthy company that will affect the growth and development of other companies, not only in the energy sector. I believe that things will be different, we will all work on it,” said Mihajlovic.
She added that EPS must be taken into account, because that company is worth billions of euros and that energy and national security depend on it.
It is important, as she said, that the system be stable and that is why the state works 24 hours a day.
“We are helping EPS to secure licenses, to provide enough coal, to maintain stability. It is obvious that there are great experts in EPS who have been marginalized, but that is also changing,” she said.
Mihajlovic reiterated that it is untrue that the Ministry is responsible for the problems in the electricity sector, as well as that it delayed the issuance of approval to EPS for the “E” coal field.
“Of course, it is not true that the color of the seal was a problem. It is a lie that the documentation was returned because of that. These were essential things that EPS had to fulfill in order to dig. It is not a field of 100 meters, but ten square kilometers. It’s like building a highway without a permit,” said Mihajlovic.
She pointed out that the ministry insisted on respecting all laws and rules, in order to know how much there will be exploitation, what kind of mechanization there will be, how much it costs the state.
“In the end, everything was resolved, of course, the ministry also helped EPS,” said Mihajlović, Novi Magazin reports.
