Report Romania
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ROMANIA © gettyimages, Augustin Lazaroiu The Environmental Implementation Review 2019 COUNTRY REPORT ROMANIA Environment EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 4.4.2019 SWD(2019) 130 final COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT The EU Environmental Implementation Review 2019 Country Report - ROMANIA Accompanying the document Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions Environmental Implementation Review 2019: A Europe that protects its citizens and enhances their quality of life {COM(2019) 149 final} - {SWD(2019) 111 final} - {SWD(2019) 112 final} - {SWD(2019) 113 final} - {SWD(2019) 114 final} - {SWD(2019) 115 final} - {SWD(2019) 116 final} - {SWD(2019) 117 final} - {SWD(2019) 118 final} - {SWD(2019) 119 final} - {SWD(2019) 120 final} - {SWD(2019) 121 final} - {SWD(2019) 122 final} - {SWD(2019) 123 final} - {SWD(2019) 124 final} - {SWD(2019) 125 final} - {SWD(2019) 126 final} - {SWD(2019) 127 final} - {SWD(2019) 128 final} - {SWD(2019) 129 final} - {SWD(2019) 131 final} - {SWD(2019) 132 final} - {SWD(2019) 133 final} - {SWD(2019) 134 final} - {SWD(2019) 135 final} - {SWD(2019) 136 final} - {SWD(2019) 137 final} - {SWD(2019) 138 final} - {SWD(2019) 139 final} EN EN This report has been written by the staff of the Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission. Comments are welcome, please send them to [email protected] More information on the European Union is available at http://europa.eu. Photographs: p. 11 — ©iStock/Janoka82; p. 13 — ©iStock/alpinetrail; p. 22 — ©gettyimages/Janoka82; p. 25 — ©iStock/salajean; p. 30 — ©iStock/igabriela For reproduction or use of these photos, permission must be sought directly from the copyright holder. ©European Union, 2019 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. 1 Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................... 3 PART I: THEMATIC AREAS ............................................................................................................................... 4 1. TURNING THE EU INTO A CIRCULAR, RESOURCE-EFFICIENT, GREEN AND COMPETITIVE LOW- CARBON ECONOMY .............................................................................................................................. 4 Measures towards a circular economy .................................................................................................. 4 Waste management .............................................................................................................................. 6 Climate change ...................................................................................................................................... 8 2. PROTECTING, CONSERVING AND ENHANCING NATURAL CAPITAL ................................................... 11 Nature and biodiversity ....................................................................................................................... 11 Maintaining and restoring ecosystems and their services .................................................................. 12 Estimating natural capital .................................................................................................................... 13 Invasive alien species........................................................................................................................... 14 Soil protection ..................................................................................................................................... 14 Marine protection ............................................................................................................................... 15 3. ENSURING CITIZENS' HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE ......................................................................... 16 Air quality ............................................................................................................................................ 16 Industrial emissions ............................................................................................................................. 17 Noise ................................................................................................................................................. 18 Water quality and management ......................................................................................................... 18 Chemicals ............................................................................................................................................. 21 Making cities more sustainable ........................................................................................................... 22 PART II: ENABLING FRAMEWORK: IMPLEMENTATION TOOLS ................................................................... 24 4. GREEN TAXATION, GREEN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL FUNDING AND INVESTMENTS ..................................................................................................................................... 24 Green taxation and environmentally harmful subsidies ..................................................................... 24 Green public procurement .................................................................................................................. 25 Environmental funding and investments ............................................................................................ 25 5. STRENGTHENING ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE .......................................................................... 29 Information, public participation and access to justice....................................................................... 29 Compliance assurance ......................................................................................................................... 31 Effectiveness of environmental administrations ................................................................................. 32 International agreements .................................................................................................................... 33 Sustainable development and the implementation of the UN SDGs .................................................. 34 2 Environmental Implementation Review 2019 — Romania Executive summary Romania and the Environmental Implementation Accession Treaty, the Commission decided to launch an Review infringement procedure. The final deadline for Romania to comply with the Urban Waste Water Treatment In the 2017 EIR, the main challenges identified for Directive is 31 December 2018 according to its Romania for the implementation of EU environmental Accession Treaty and the problem will most likely grow. policy and law were: to improve compliance with EU waste and urban As far as nature conservation is concerned, waste water legislation in order to meet EU targets, implementing the Nature Directives remains a as the final deadlines in Romania’s Accession Treaty considerable challenge. Romania’s Natura 2000 network were drawing near; and appears to suffer from the lack of an appropriate to improve coordination and enhance the administrative capacity framework and the absence of administrative capacity of the authorities and updated knowledge and data. agencies involved in implementing EU legislation, in Poor air quality continues to be a problem in the particular for water and waste management and country. The main sources of air pollution come from the protection and management of Natura 2000 the transport and energy sectors, in particular fossil sites. This action is part of the broader strategy to fuels/use of domestic solid fuel by households. Romania strengthen public administration. could make significant progress towards addressing the Romania organised an EIR national dialogue in July problem by: (i) restructuring the energy and domestic 2018 focusing on three main issues: waste, waste water heating system (facilitating the integration of and air quality, which are at present the most renewables, shifting to gas, district heating and challenging issues. Also in July 2018, the nature pollution controls); (ii) traffic measures; and (iii) other bilateral dialogue took place. pollution and prevention control measures. At the same time, serious and structural shortcomings have been In 2017 the Commission launched the TAIEX-EIR Peer- identified in the air quality data measured by the to-Peer (EIR P2P) tool to facilitate peer-to-peer learning Romanian monitoring network and reported to the between experts from national environmental European Commission. In fact, the situation could be authorities. The first P2P event took place on 22- much worse than actually reported. 24 January 2018 in Bucharest at the request of the The 2019 EIR shows that Romania continues to rely Romanian Ministry of Environment, to seek expert heavily on EU funds and loan opportunities. advice on the issue of landfill closure and rehabilitation Nevertheless, there is a lack of administrative capacity in order to address an ongoing infringement procedure. and project preparation/maturation and prioritisation Progress on meeting challenges since the 2017 EIR across environmental areas. This hinders the capacity of The 2019 EIR shows that waste management remains a use of funds which are available and highly needed. key challenge for Romania, despite formal progress Examples of good practice thanks to adoption of