Romania’s Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja has called for an end to the European Union’s environmental policies, arguing that they are driven by ideology rather than sound public policy and have caused significant economic harm.

Burduja’s shift aligns with growing resistance to EU green policies in Central and Eastern Europe, where governments have raised concerns over the economic impact of aggressive decarbonisation targets.

Burduja described the EU’s green transition as "shock therapy" and said it has weakened Europe’s industrial base.

"Like any ideology imposed without careful planning, it has turned into a utopia that is costing us dearly — economically, socially, and strategically," he wrote on Facebook on January 29.

"It is scandalous to learn that Europeans’ money has also been used to finance NGOs and lobbying campaigns for the greening of the EU. An absurd paradox: with our money, we have destroyed our industries," the Romanian minister of energy stated.

He added that the EU, originally founded as a "community of coal and steel — symbols of economic power and competitiveness", has instead prioritised imports of photovoltaic panels, inverters, batteries and wind turbines, while declaring its own gas and industrial resources "polluting".

Burduja's remarks come amid criticism of his ministry’s handling of a €3bn allocation from the Modernisation Fund for a contracts-for-difference (CfD) scheme aimed at supporting wind and solar energy projects. Experts argue that the funds would have been better spent on long-term strategic projects such as the Tarnita pumped-storage hydropower plant.

Despite defending the CfD scheme and announcing the first auction results in late 2023, Burduja has now positioned himself as a vocal critic of the EU’s green agenda. His comments also referenced recent revelations about former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans’ alleged use of EU funds to support environmental NGOs aligned with his political agenda.