On Friday, Prime Minister Răzvan Ungureanu was expected to announce his first decision in the case of the direct contracts between Hidroelectrica and certain privately owned energy suppliers. The decision was postponed until this week, when the IMF delegation is expected to arrive in Bucharest.

Moreover, Romania will need to answer, among other things, for the issue of the contracts to the World Bank as well, with which it is negotiating a stand-by loan agreement of 1 billion Euros, sources close to the talks say.

Whereas some sources in the Ministry of the Economy consider that the termination of those contracts with the so-called "clever boys" in the energy industry is a sure thing, other sources close to the talks claim that the talks aren't yet over. The Romanian authorities have been tasked by the international institutions to solve the problem of these contracts, which are eating up Hidroelectrica's profit. Thus, either the prices will be hiked, the quantities and the applicability periods will be reduced, or the Government will have to decide the termination of the contracts and to sell the hydroelectric energy available on the open market. What is certain is that Prime Minister Ungureanu needs to solve the issue of the contracts this week.

A "legend" has been created around the "clever boys" which says that the termination of the contracts would be extremely costly. That myth was further reinforced by the reaction of the ministers of the economy who since 2004, have failed to change those contracts after reviewing them. President Traian Băsescu also studied them and talked about them, but nothing significant happened.

Authorized sources which had access to these contracts have also said that the termination is not as big a problem as it's made out to be. It would be enough for an interministry commission (Finances - Justice - Economy)