Commission Report 2002 (Romania)

• Progress since the last Regular Report
• Overall assessment
• Conclusion

Chapter 22: Environment

Progress since the last Regular Report

During the reporting period, Romania has made progress with transposition of the environmental acquis - although much of the new legislation appears to have been adopted without due consideration for the administrative and financial resources necessary for its implementation.

Integration of the environment into other policies is hardly progressing, although the Inter-Ministerial Committee, which is responsible for co-ordination between ministries to ensure that environment is taken into account by all concerned sectors met in February 2002 for the first time since 1999. Recent medium-term and long-term energy strategies, which concentrate on increasing energy production without giving due attention to either the environmental effects of increased energy production or the potentials for improving energy efficiency, are cases in point.

In the field of horizontal legislation, no developments can be noted regarding environmental impact assessment legislation, which is a key issue in the Romanian context.

As far as air quality is concerned, a Government Order on volatile organic compounds from storage and distribution of petrol was adopted, as was a governmental decision on the emission of gaseous and particulate pollutants from internal combustion engines.

On waste management, a substantial amount of legislation was adopted concerning the waste framework, packaging and packaging waste, incineration of waste, landfill of waste, and hazardous waste.

A considerable amount of legislation was also adopted on water quality. Standards have been set for surface waters intended for abstraction of drinking water. An action plan was prepared for reducing pollution of ground waters and of the aquatic environment. Norms have been set regarding the discharge of waste water, the quality of surface waters to support fish life, the quality of water intended for human consumption, and the quality of bathing water. In addition to legislative measures, meetings of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Water Management resumed, and the committees responsible for water basin management commenced their activities.

As far as nature protection is concerned, legislation was adopted during the reporting period related to zoos.

As regards industrial pollution control and risk management, progress was limited to the adoption of an Emergency Ordinance on industrial pollution prevention, reduction and control. Although this legislation is of considerable importance, a very substantial amount of work is necessary before it can be implemented (e.g. the list of enterprises that will be covered by this law still has to be drawn up). As far as enforcement is concerned, a National Environmental Guard has been created by transferring staff from Environmental Protection Inspectorates - but no additional staff or resources have been allocated.

With regard to chemicals and genetically modified organisms, progress was limited to the adoption of an Ordinance on animal welfare. No progress has been achieved in the field of noise.

On nuclear safety and radiation protection, (see also chapter 14 - Energy), Romania has largely completed the transposition of the Directive laying down basic safety standards for the protection of workers and the general public from ionising radiation. Transposition has been completed for the directives on the protection of outside workers, and on health protection of individuals to ionising radiation in case of medical exposure. Standards have also been adopted on the safe transport of radioactive materials.

As regards administrative capacity, the Ministry of Water and Environmental Protection remains understaffed. The situation has deteriorated since the last Regular Report and the total number of vacancies has increased. There have been no substantial measures taken during the reporting period to increase the limited capacity of the 42 local Environmental Protection Inspectorates, which are responsible for the implementation of environmental policy (permitting, inspections, enforcement).

The budget allocated for environmental protection has been slightly increased but remains extremely low. The National Environmental Fund is still not operational, although most of the implementing legislation has now been adopted.

Overall assessment

At face value, the list of environmental legislation that Romania has adopted during the reporting period is impressive. However, most of the legislation has been prepared without full consultation of stakeholders (other ministries, economic operators, and NGOs), without a precise assessment of the implementation costs, and without securing the financial and human resources necessary for its enforcement. It is therefore likely that many of these laws will prove impossible to implement and will have to be amended.

Adoption of legislation on environmental impact assessment has been delayed and should be treated as a priority by the Romanian authorities. Real progress has been limited regarding air quality, waste management, industrial pollution and risk management. In the case of nature protection, most of the acquis has been transposed. However, in the areas of noise and chemicals and genetically modified organisms additional work is necessary.

Romania has ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

Last year`s Regular Report concluded that Romania did not have sufficient administrative capacity to implement its existing environmental legislation. Since then the body of legislation has grown very considerably, but staff levels have not increased and conditions remain poor. Romania urgently needs to build up the capacity of the local Environmental Protection Inspectorates (EPIs) in order to improve permitting, monitoring, inspection, and enforcement. The creation of the National Environmental Guard does not represent increased enforcement capacity since its staff have all been transferred from the EPIs without any additional means being provided.

Considerable investments will need to be secured over the medium and long-term in order to ensure the implementation of the environmental acquis.

Conclusion

In its 1997 Opinion, the Commission concluded that Romania would have to place a higher priority on environmental issues, implement focused environmental accession strategies and work programmes, significantly increase financial and other resources and develop its administrative capacity. It was estimated that if these steps were taken, full transposition of the acquis could be achieved in the medium to long term. The Opinion also noted that compliance with legislation requiring a sustained high level of investment could be achieved only in the very long term.

Since the Opinion, Romania has transposed a considerable amount of legislation, but has not developed the administrative or the financial resources to implement it. This means that Romania is still far from complying with the environmental acquis.

Negotiations on this chapter continue.

Romania should focus further efforts on developing implementation capacities and should ensure that laws include realistic deadlines and cost assessments, and are only proposed following sufficient consultation. At the local level, significant resources are needed to improve the status of existing staff, to recruit new inspectors, and to train them adequately. co-ordination between ministries on environmental issues needs to be improved and Romania should integrate environment protection requirements into the definition and implementation of all other sectoral policies so as to promote sustainable development.

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