Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said on Wednesday that the Romanian state can do nothing as far as Mechel is concerned, the Russian steel producer that sold its assets in Romania, but he added that the Government will support the new investor willing to take over the respective steel mills, Agerpres reported.

'Mechel practically shut down its operations, not only in Romania but in twelve other countries. Romania is obviously affected, and we shall do everything in our power to support a new investor. I checked if all the requirements at the time of the privatization were observed, and they were; the crisis the company is struggling with, that affects a lot of countries, is a reality that neither we nor the European Union, or the other affected countries could handle it differently. We shall provide any type of support for the investor who is willing to rescue the mills that belonged to Mechel,' Victor Ponta said in Cluj-Napoca (north-west of Bucharest).

Ponta also said that the Romanian state had no control upon the price of 230 lei (about 70 dollars) for which the Russians sold their assets in Romania.

'It is a private company, it has the right to sell (the assets) even for two billion, or for two lei, because it is private, it does not belong to the state. In reality, the latest decisions relating to the plants in Romania and in other European countries were taken amid a re-organization upon which Romania has no control whatsoever, given the fact that the company is from Russia,' the prime minister also said.

Source: bne