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Romania’s Road to Accession - The Need for an Environmental Focus

3. Romania’s Environmental Approximation Status and Specific Implementation Challenges

For the purposes of approximation, the European Commission has subdivided the environmental acquis communautaire by sector. This section looks at the status of approximation in Romania for the major environmental sectors covered by the acquis. Each sector’s section starts with a sketch of the actual situation, and then reviews the measures in place and still needed in order to achieve compliance by the date of accession.

Concerning legal transposition, the MWEP has set itself the ambitious goal of completing the adaptation of Romania’s legal framework to the EU requirements by the end of 2003. Its lawyers and technical specialists are working to draft the necessary legislation and supplementary administrative regulations, and to get these drafts through the legislative process within the MWEP’s self-imposed deadline. Some outside observers are concerned that the transposition process is outpacing Romania’s capacity to set in place the necessary administrative structures and systems for setting the requirements into practice. Moreover, the road-map for Romania reveals significant concern regarding the lack of realistic deadlines and cost assessments to implement effectively the vast bulk of newly adopted legislation. The sections below pay special attention to this concern.

3.1 Horizontal measures

This sector includes a number of administrative requirements that cut across all environmental topics, such as public access to environmental information and environmental impact assessment (EIA) of proposed development projects. In its negotiations with the candidate countries, the EU has placed great emphasis on the need to set these procedures in place as quickly as possible, not least of all because EIA with public participation is a fundamental pre-condition for eligibility of infrastructure projects for EU funding.

The MWEP considers approximation with EU obligations in this area as a short-term priority¹⁹ to be achieved between 2002-2004. Similarly, the recent roadmap for accession has explicitly established as a short-term benchmark the need to adopt secondary legislation on environmental impact assessment and access to information, and to improve public consultation with all relevant stake holders at different stages of the legislative process. The Emergency Governmental Ordinance No. 91/2002 amending the 1995 Environmental Protection Law provides the legislative framework to enable subsequent regulatory acts for implementation of the EU requirements in this sector.

Romania was one of the first countries to ratify the 1998 UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention), via Law No. 86/2000. Moreover, it ratified the UNECE Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention) in March 2001.

The MWEP completed transposition of the EU access to environmental information requirements by a Governmental Decision on Free Access to Environmental Information.²⁰ The GD lays out a schedule for completing an inventory of environmental information and the public authorities holding such information (by October 2002) and for its publication (by November 2002), but as of February 2003, the inventory had not yet been completed.

Since 1996, the MWEP, in co-operation with ICIM,²¹ has prepared an annual Report on the State of the Environment, which is published at the MWEP web site (www.mappm.ro) and linked through EIONET at the European Environment Agency. The 2001 Report is available on-line, but only in Romanian. In addition, each of the 42 county-level Environmental Protection Inspectorates (EPIs) publishes an annual report based on local data.²²

Responsibility for the implementation of a 2001 Public Communication Strategy on dissemination of environmental information rests with the MWEP’s Directorate for Public Relations and the Public Relations, Mass Media, Local and International Programmes within the 42 EPIs. However, the MWEP has only limited human resources for these tasks (6 persons at central level, and one person at each EPI) and is seeking to increase the current staff.

A fully EU-compliant EIA procedure was established in 2002 via a Governmental Decision on Procedure for Environmental Impact Assessment.²³ The MWEP issues permits for major projects and for international and transboundary projects, while smaller projects fall under the responsibility of the county-level EPIs. The existing EIA system is managed by the Directorate for Permitting and Certification within the MWEP and the Agreements, Permits, and Notification Offices within the EPIs. However, again the human resources are limited (10 persons at central level, of which 5 are directly involved in approving the EIA, and an average of 5 persons in each EPI); the MWEP has applied for additional budget in the hope that it can double staffing in this area by early 2003.

The new system aims to ensure public participation at different stages of the EIA procedures. Citizens are initially notified via local press and public notices at EPI premises, and given the opportunity to comment on the EIA or environmental audit report.

However, the public participation procedure does not yet fully work in Romania. Current EIA meetings are too often a one-way process of information sharing, limited to provision of technical and often complicated information to the public, rather than vehicles for fostering a genuine public debate on an intended project. A Handbook on Public Participation in EIA Procedures, issued by the NGO Ecosens, and a PHARE 2000 technical assistance project are expected to assist in implementation of the EIA Directive. The PHARE project will include a guide on the EIA process, campaigns for greater awareness and understanding of the EIA requirements, and training.

Transposition of the newer EU requirement on strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of plans and programmes has started, but implementation will not be fully in place before 2004. Structures for public participation at central level are also lacking, e.g., interministerial working groups for adoption of legislation or approval of environmental pro-grammes do not include civil society representatives. On the other hand, civil society is very involved at local level. Romania’s Local Agenda 21 programme²⁴ establishes a structure for drawing up local environmental action plans (LEAPs) with the involvement of representatives from local businesses, the local administration and civil society.²⁵

3.2 Industrial Pollution Control and Risk Management

The EU requirements with respect to industrial pollution control pose some of the biggest challenges to Romania, because of Romania’s historically large base of industrial installations, most of which date back to the 1980s and earlier. Use of old production equipment with poor operating efficiency results in poor performance in comparison to Western European standards. The non-ferrous metallurgical facility at Copsa Mica, for example, emits high levels of SO₂, lead and cadmium for kilo-metres around. The severe environmental contamination has led to major public health problems, including congenital malformations or dysfunction in more than 50% of the local children born today.

Yet many local economies, including that of Copsa Mica, are highly dependent on the jobs provided by their industrial resource base, and the social costs that would be incurred by closing these polluting facilities are considered unacceptably high.

In recognition of the massive (mostly private sector) investment needed to reduce environmental impacts from its industries, the Romanian government has requested the following transition periods for this sector:

Romania’s negotiation position for approximating this sector foresees complete transposition by the end of 2003. The MWEP plans a significant training effort to be sure that the competent authorities understand the measures needed to implement the legal provisions, which will enter into force by the end of 2005. Existing industrial activities will have ten years (2006 – 2015) to achieve compliance with the new provisions. Activities and installations that are not able to comply by 2015 will then be closed.

The European Commission’s 2002 Regular Report noted the extensive work still needed for implementation of EU requirements for this sector. The key EU requirement is the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive,²⁶ which requires major industrial installations to have an integrated permit covering impacts on all environmental media (water, air, waste), with emission limit values based on best available techniques (BAT). A preliminary inventory carried out in 1999 found 873 industrial installations subject to IPPC requirements, of which 728 were currently in operation. The inventory did not include food production, animal farms and landfills. After carrying out a second inventory in 2002, the MWEP determined the number of installations to be closer to 2900, i.e., some 70 installations for each of Romania’s 42 Environmental Protection Inspectorates (EPIs) to handle.

This is an environmental management challenge for which few of the EPIs are prepared. Under the permitting procedure established in Romania’s 1995 Environmental Framework Law, the MWEP issues permits for activities of national importance and investments involving more than one county, e.g., hazardous and radioactive waste disposal, large industrial plants, while the 42 county-level EPIs issue the remaining permits. An environmental impact assessment is needed before a permit can be issued and the basic procedure requires public consultation. The requirements of the permits are established by the EPIs on a case-by-case basis, and are not based on the EU standard of best available techniques (BAT).

But a large number of activities are subject to permitting requirements, and the lack of staff at the county-level EPIs has resulted in most applications being processed without adequate evaluation of the potential environmental impacts. As of 1999, most industrial activities coming within the IPPC Directive still operated without a permit, and of those that did have permits, only 20% complied with permit conditions.²⁷ Thus the system does not yet correspond to the EU requirements.

The IPPC Directive will place significant new demands on the MWEP and the county-level EPI officials responsible for permitting and enforcement, because it requires complex judgements about the tradeoffs between emissions to different environmental media and the process options for each plant. The EPIs lack capacity for the time- and resource-consuming process of making installation-specific determinations of best available techniques (BAT)²⁸, and there is no central-level source of information on BAT to provide technical guidance for a particular installation. On the other hand, each EPI has staff with expertise on different types of installations and the various environmental media, which could provide a knowledge base of expertise for integrated permitting.

In March 2002, Romania adopted an Emergency Governmental Ordinance on integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC)²⁹ requiring all facilities subject to its provisions to ask for an evaluation, and to begin integrated permitting in January 2003. Six months after the ordinance was published, no facilities had asked for this evaluation, and the MWEP had not yet issued guidance on how the competent authorities will issue permits.

The MWEP plans to establish a five-person unit on industrial pollution control and integrated permitting within the Directorate for Ecological Control and Monitoring, and to augment each EPI with an additional 3 to 7 employees for integrated permitting, depending on the number of IPPC installations in the respective area. However, as of October 2002 government funds for these additional positions had not yet been allocated.

Though additional technical assistance for implementing the IPPC Directive is foreseen under the PHARE 2001 programme, the tight timeschedules established by Romania’s transposing legislation and the formidable technical challenges posed by integrated permitting may require technical assistance support and major capital investment for years to come. One option for Romania would be to establish a list of priority sectors for phasing in integrated permitting, perhaps starting with thermal power plants, chemical facilities, refineries, and metallurgical facilities. Each of these sectors already has a professional association and a research institute in place, which would facilitate the process of implementation. In that vein, the MWEP – in co-operation with the Cement Industry Owners Association - is currently involved in a pilot project for implementation of BAT in the cement industry supported by the Danish Ministry of Environment, and it also co-operates with the NGO Ecosens to establish a Pollution Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) in accordance with IPPC requirements.

The EU requirements on dangerous substances discharged to water³⁰ were transposed by a 2002 Governmental Decision, but implementation is still in the initial stages. Since most of the substances were not previously monitored in Romania, the MWEP is working on an inventory of the industrial facilities currently discharging dangerous substances into water, and plans to issue an additional order concerning methods for measuring and analysing their concentrations in waters by the end of 2002. National Company Romanian Waters ("Apele Romane") is in process of getting its laboratories accredited and modernised to meet the EU standards for monitoring these substances in watercourses. By the end of 2005, the MWEP plans to establish intermediate emission limit values based on the technological and financial capacity of specific industries, and the impact of dangerous substances discharges on water quality. This effort will need to be closely co-ordinated with the introduction of integrated permitting under the IPPC requirements.

The Large Combustion Plant Directive³¹ covers thermal power plants and large industrial boilers generating over 50 mega watt (MW). The MWEP plans to develop a "National Plan for gradual limitation of emissions". It is currently updating its inventory of installations subject to this directive (the 1999 baseline study identified 67 large combustion plants (LCPs) in Romania), analysing emissions for installations subject to the directive for the reference year 1989 and for the year 2001, and assessing costs for implementation on a "case by case " basis. The LCP Directive has recently been amended to require even older LCPs to be upgraded to meet stringent requirements.

Transposition of the Solvents Directive³² and the Seveso II (Major Accident Hazards) Directive³³ will be completed by the end of 2002 via Government Decisions.³⁴ The MWEP plans for implementation of the

Seveso II Directive include setting up a Risk Secretariat employing 5 persons by 2003, to establish the procedures, perform risk assessments and reporting of major accidents to the EU. Each EPI is expected to have correspondent units for relevant activities, including drawing up a more complete inventory of the plants subject to the Directive’s provisions and elaboration of internal and external emergency plans.

The Convention on the transboundary effects of industrial accidents (Helsinki) is also going to be ratified by the end of this year. A PHARE 2002 Twinning project with Germany as the primary partner will assist in developing an implementation strategy for the Seveso II, Solvents and LCP Directives. The objectives of this project include elaborating a plan for emissions reduction as well as a National Register of Pollutant Emissions.

The administrative challenges of this sector will require a concentrated effort from the MWEP and the EPIs for the next several years until initial permits are in place. But the even bigger challenge will be to work with Romanian industry to ensure the necessary investments to achieve BAT and clean up Romania’s burden of past pollution.

3.3 Water Quality

EU water legislation covers a wide range of issues and is expected to be among the most difficult and expensive of the EU requirements to implement. Romania has much work to do in this sector.

The 1990s saw a reduction in the total quantity of water consumption because of diminished industrial activity and the introduction of technologies using less water. Despite this, there can still be insufficiencies of water supply for important parts of the country because of the unequal spread of water resources, frequent droughts, the lack of regulari-sation of river flows and the pollution of many rivers.

Out of approximately 22.4 million inhabitants only 65% (14.7 million persons) have drinkable water supplied by public service.³⁵ Romania’s water distribution is uneven and water interruptions in the city of Bucharest still occur.

Two hundred and six municipal waste water treatment plants currently operate in Romania, but the general level of treatment is low with only 77% of the total flow of public sewerage being treated, and only 18% treated to EU standards.³⁶

The investment needed to comply with EU standards on drinking water and urban wastewater treatment will strain Romania’s national budget for years to come. In light of this, Romania has requested transitional periods for this sector longer than for any other sector:

Almost all the water acquis have been incorporated into national law. Approximation with the Water Framework Directive is intended to be accomplished in 2003 via legislative amendments to the existing Water Law 107/1996. Romania’s structure for managing water has been organ-ised on the basis of river basins since 1944, which gives it an advantage for implementing the Water Framework Directive.

Nonetheless, major implementation and enforcement challenges remain for the bodies responsible for water management shown on the organi-gramme in section 5.1.5. Two current institutional changes deserve attention. Firstly, the end of 2002 shall see the transformation of the National Company Romanian Waters "Apele Romane" into a Water Authority within the National Administration.³⁷ Secondly, a recent Governmental Decision provides that the Water Authority should function as the central public authority in the water sector and from now on undertake implementation of EU requirements.³⁸ This should improve the currently poor co-ordination and insufficiency of data exchange between the responsible ministries dealing with different aspects of water management, which has been a substantial obstacle to development of a financing strategy to upgrade water supply and treatment in Romania.

The 11 river basin directorates are required to monitor water quality and quantity, set quality standards, establish rules for water abstraction and issue waste water discharge permits. The 1996 Law on Water established requirements on public participation through river basin committees. The Water Framework Directive is particularly demanding as it requires Member States to achieve "good ecological status" for all surface and ground water by 2010. Romania will need to develop river basin management plans and establish programmes of measures for each river basin, a number of which may require significant investment. Implementation will require close co-ordination with industrial pollution control efforts and development of municipal waste water treatment infrastructure. Full compliance in these areas is not expected until 2015.

Under a 2.65 MEUR 2001 PHARE programme, a pilot river basin management plan will be elaborated for the Somes basin, and a cost assessment methodology formulated for the Arges river basin.³⁹ But these projects will need to be followed up with additional projects for the other river basins and with long-term management plans backed by sufficient human and financial resources.

Figure 7.1.
Romania hydrographic network and hydrographic basin boundaries

Much water suffers from nitrate contamination⁴⁰ and Romania has indicated that it is having some difficulties implementing the Nitrate Directive.⁴¹ The problems are mainly linked to identification of nitrate waters and designation of vulnerable zones. A Commission for Application of Action Plan for Nitrate Waters⁴² has been recently designated and is responsible for preparing the implementation programme for this Directive. The MWEP intends to develop an implementation programme that will reach EU compliance for new farms by 2007, and for existing farms by 2011. A Code of Best Agricultural Practices has been issued in the framework of a World Bank project, which includes a loan for setting up centralised water supply systems for 250 rural localities where drinking water is affected by nitrate pollution.

Implementation of the Drinking Water Directive⁴³ and Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive⁴⁴ requirements will be especially costly for Romania. Romania has transposed both directives but requested 15-year transitional periods for each. The Directorate of Public Health under the Ministry of Health and Family and the municipal level water services share responsibility for implementing and enforcing the Drinking Water Directive. The existing monitoring system for drinking water will have to be improved and the laboratories better equipped to ensure adequate monitoring. A general estimate is that 10 billion EUR is required to implement the Drinking Water Directive. A PHARE programme, concluded in 2002 aimed to strengthen the institutional and administrative capacity of the Ministry of Health and Family to implement the Drinking Water and Bathing Water Directives. Through this project the public health laboratories will be modernised.

Implementation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive is at early stages and a general implementation plan is needed given that this will be the most expensive Directive to implement. An important step will be to designate "sensitive areas", i.e. areas that are subject to eutrophication, since the Directive requires that waste water discharged into sensitive areas receive additional chemical treatment to remove phosphates and other nutrients which contribute to eutrophication. This should be completed by the end of 2003.

Total investment required between 2002 and 2030 to rehabilitate the infrastructure of the water-sewerage services in urban areas is currently estimated at 4,2 billion EUR and in rural areas at 5,5 billion EUR.⁴⁵ These cost estimates are from the "Government’s Strategy concerning the Development of Local Public Services of Communal Husbandry" developed in 2001 by the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA). The Strategy’s findings are discussed in further detail in section 6 of this report.

The MWEP recognises the significant investment challenge posed by these two Directives and has given them top priority in its strategy for ISPA financing of environmental infrastructure as per the following table.

The MWEP has requested an additional 193.7 MEUR from ISPA for waste water treatment facilities for Brasov, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Pascani, Oradea, and Focsani, but these projects have not yet received ISPA approval. To complete the technical documentation needed for project approval has proven to be a sometimes formidable hurdle and the technical assistance available through ISPA can take as much as nine months to become operational. The more flexible support of bilateral donors has been crucial in helping Romania prepare eligible projects for IPSA 2000 and 2001 and this need for technical assistance will remain for the foreseeable future.

The MWEP has compiled an initial inventory of infrastructure investment projects needed for EU compliance on the basis of information from the 42 EPIs. But the efforts of the MPA and the MWEP have not yet been combined into the type of detailed Directive-specific implementation plan needed for accession negotiations in this sector, let alone a master plan with prioritised projects ready for further development and financing.

3.4 Air Quality

Because of its varied landscape, good dispersion conditions and large forested areas, Romania’s air quality is generally considered good. Air quality has in fact slightly improved in the past five years due to reduced activity or shutting down of industrial facilities. However, air quality in highly industrialised urban areas is still a problem. Moreover, traffic is now a major air pollution source in urban areas due to constantly increasing numbers of vehicles, most of which are old and not equipped with catalysts to reduce concentrations of air pollutants in exhaust fumes.

Transposition of the EU Ambient Air Quality Framework Directive⁴⁷ and its daughter Directives is to be completed in mid 2003, though to a large extent most requirements are already transposed into national legislation. The fast process of transposition needs to be followed by a proper and sustained process of implementation, in order to be able to comply fully with the EU requirements in the sector. The implementation costs to be covered by central and local authorities have been estimated at 200 MEUR, including investments in monitoring equipment, training, and additional administrative capacity.⁴⁸

In 2001, with Danish assistance, Romania started preliminary assessment of air quality.⁴⁹ The first conclusions show that the air quality data collected by Romania’s current system do not meet EU data quality objective requirements. Concentration levels can seldom be compared to EU limit values because of differences in sampling and analysis methods used and lack of proper equipment. Due to lack of resources at the institutions involved, monitoring equipment is poorly maintained, and assessment methods are not in compliance with EU reference methods.

Romania’s ambient air quality monitoring currently involves two separate and parallel systems: the "National Air Quality Monitoring Network" operated by the county-level Environmental Protection Inspectorates (EPIs) under the MWEP, and the "Community Air Pollution Monitoring Network" operated by the local offices of the Ministry of Health and Family (MHF) and the Institute of Public Health (ISPB). In 1999, these parallel networks had respectively 350 and 86 sampling locations, and the exchange of data on air quality was poor.

To end this duplication, it is proposed that the MHF start phasing out its monitoring network, keeping a few representative stations to provide supplementary information. This would enable health authorities to focus on assessing population exposure to air pollution and the impact on health, as well as on informing the public about any air pollution risks. It is also proposed that the MWEP limit the number of monitoring stations within its network to the minimum required by the EU Directives, and to focus on providing the necessary equipment for all stations during the next 2 years and on proper information exchange among all stakeholders.

An EU-compliant system of integrated air quality assessment and management for Romania will require replacement of existing methods of monitoring, including gradually changing to an automatic air quality monitoring system, so as to form over time a complete and relevant air pollution monitoring network. A PHARE project "Local Investment in the EPI of Bucharest for Air Quality Monitoring" (total budget 4 MEUR) will purchase automatic AQ monitoring stations for Bucharest by the end of 2003. Under the PHARE 2001 programme, 10 selected EPIs will also receive EU-compliant AQ monitoring equipment (total budget 1.46 MEUR).⁵⁰

A National AQ Reference Laboratory (NAQRL) will also need to be established for purposes of auditing, quality assurance, measurement standard methods, reference standards and international comparison studies. ICIM has been appointed to this role, but will need significant investment in equipment and facilities upgrading as well as technical assistance in order to serve as the NAQRL.⁵¹

One of the objectives of air quality monitoring is to provide the information for management of air quality, a responsibility that rests primarily with local governments, in coordination with the EPIs and local health authorities.

The DANCEE project assisted Romania in the designation of 11 urban areas as "agglomerations"⁵² for the purpose of assessment and management of air quality according to EU requirements. These include the major municipalities of Romania (including surrounding communes) as well as those with city-specific air quality problems: Bucharest, Baia Mare, Ploiesti, Pitesti, Constanta, Craiova, Cluj, Iasi, Galati + Braila, Brasov and Timisoara⁵³.

Air quality management plans are to be developed in consultation by the competent authorities, the titleholders, and any interested members of public, and may include such measures as suspension of road traffic at times when limit values are exceeded.

The results of air quality assessment, now published annually in the Report on the State of the Environment, will need to be made available to the public in a timely manner, as the EU Directives require. The new informational system should provide regular (daily and even hourly) information to the public, and is planned to become functional and EU-compliant no later than 1 January 2006.⁵⁴

With regard to EU requirements for placing petrol and diesel fuels on the market, only unleaded petrol will be allowed as of 1 January 2005.⁵⁹ The sulphur content in fuel is to be reduced gradually between 2001 and 2007, and starting with 2007, companies will have to place on the market and/or use only fuel oil with a sulphur content of 1%. For diesel fuel, a maximum sulphur content of 0,005% of its weight will be acceptable. Implementation will require major technological refurbishment at Romania’s refineries. One calculation estimated the cost of implementation at about 168.5 MEUR, while another estimated the cost at 225 MEUR for gasoline and 40 MEUR for diesel fuel.⁶⁰

3.5 Waste Management

Waste management is an area where Romania has much to do to bring its situation up to EU standards. There is a general lack of adequate facilities to treat properly and dispose existing waste streams. Moreover, hazardous waste is often co-disposed with ordinary household waste, leading to serious pollution from inadequately protected landfills.

Of the over 55 million tons of waste generated in 2000, some 15% was municipal waste and the remaining 85% industrial and agricultural waste. Municipal waste generation has remained fairly stable since 1993, but the 40% of household waste (i.e. over 2 million tons per year) made up of recyclable materials (paper, carton, glass, plastic, metals) is not recovered, but disposed into landfills together with other urban waste. On the other hand, industrial waste has shrunk dramatically, due to decreased industrial activity, improved production technologies and better environmental management. 2001 saw a particularly steep drop in the quantity of hazardous waste generated on account of reduced activity in the field of chemical and metallurgy industries.

Waste generated in Romania during 1993 – 2000 (in million tons)

Responsibility for waste management is shared by central government and by local public administration authorities. The MWEP’s Waste and Dangerous Chemical Substances Management Division is responsible for transposing the EU waste management requirements, a task now largely completed, and for national strategies and implementation measures.

In accordance with the EU waste framework requirements, the MWEP has prepared a National Waste Management Strategy and a National Action Plan for Management of Industrial and Urban Waste. The National Strategy sets out the necessary steps for collecting, recycling, treating and disposal of waste, as well as future trends and cost estimations. County governments are required to elaborate County Plans for Waste Management as well, so that the final National Plan for Waste Management can be finalised in early 2003 and approved thereafter by the Government.⁶¹

But significant practical problems of implementation remain. Statistical data show only half of the population is served by municipal waste collection services. Only 2,500 of Romania’s 13,000 localities have orga-nised systems of collecting, transporting and depositing urban waste.⁶² Villages in particular are rarely covered by municipal waste management services.

Disposal infrastructure is also a problem, with almost all waste – municipal and industrial – going to landfills. Most landfills do not have insulating linings to stop hazardous substances contaminating groundwater and as such are major sources of surface and groundwater contamination.

To meet the EU requirements, Romania – like other candidate countries – will need significant investment in waste management infrastructure, including modern landfills and incinerators, as well as capacity for collection and recycling of packaging waste. In recognition of this financial challenge, Romania has requested the following transition periods for this sector:

It will take up to 15 years to build the new landfills and composting facilities required for compliance with the Landfill Directive⁶³, and to close the existing inadequate landfills.⁶⁴ Only eight municipal landfills out of the existing 1,250 landfill sites for municipal and industrial waste currently in use meet the Landfill Directive standards.⁶⁵

According to the National Plan for Waste Management (preliminary plan), the current number of landfills will be consolidated into 127 regional landfills, with the necessary number of transfer stations established at county level. Four additional landfills are now under construction for the municipalities of Bucuresti-Glina, Pitesti, Slatina, and Banesti. Timisoara and Rimnica Valcea municipalities have applied for ISPA funding for landfills, and Dambovita County has applied for funding for a complex integrated waste management project including two landfills.

The requirements of the Sewage Sludge Directive⁶⁶ will pose significant implementation problems for Romania, with the advent of additional urban wastewater treatment. Plans are not yet in place for how this challenge will be met.

Incineration is not yet in use as a method of municipal waste disposal, due to the high humidity of Romania’s household waste. But Romania –like most Member States – expects to depend on incineration as part of its overall waste management strategy for handling a range of EU requirements from packaging to medical waste. It has requested a transition period of 2010 for the Waste Incineration Directive⁶⁷ in order to construct incineration facilities that comply with the provisions concerning emissions of air, water and soil pollutants from incineration facilities. The estimated cost for building new municipal incinerators is 195 MEUR and for hazardous waste incinerators 1,2 billion EUR.⁶⁸

Implementation of the Packaging Directive⁶⁹ will also require significant investment in facilities for collecting and processing packaging waste and to develop the market for secondary raw materials resulting from the recycled waste, and so Romania has also requested a three year transition period in this area. In the meantime, the legal framework has been put in place, including the introduction of economic instruments aimed at facilitating implementation. Romania already has some experience in selective waste collection, due to partial implementation in the municipalities of Rimnica Valcea, Piatra Neamt, Timisoara and Brasov. But this selective collection is for urban waste in general and not for packaging waste in particular. In order to obtain accurate data regarding the investment costs needed, a one year long pilot project will start by the end of 2002. At the end of the pilot project more accurate cost estimates will be available.⁷⁰

Romania intends to implement the EU requirements on waste oil by 2007. The priority will be to construct modern installations for waste oil regeneration. Though no collecting system for this category of waste is in place at this time, national legislation transposing the EU requirements has established a system for collecting and recycling waste oils as well as the legally binding duties of producers, collectors, carriers and regenerators of waste oils. A recent study⁷¹ estimates that the cost of using a modern installation for waste oil regeneration is 11.8 MEUR/ year. In the absence of a competitive technology for regeneration, the waste oils could alternatively be co-incinerated in Romania’s eight cement factories bringing the annual cost of disposal down to approx. 2.9 MEUR/year.

Concerning the EU requirements for specific hazardous waste streams, a Secretariat for PCB compounds has been established to co-ordinate at national level the inventory of the equipment and materials containing PCBs/PCTs and related implementation measures. Though the EU requirements for disposal of batteries and accumulators have been fully transposed,⁷² there is no system of collecting, reusing or disposing of used batteries in Romania at this time. Also, a formal agreement must be reached between producers and traders of batteries and accumulators to inform the public about the necessity of collecting, reusing or disposing of such products turned into wastes. However, an economic instrument to stimulate the collecting of used car batteries from the population has been introduced. The costs for implementing this Directive have been estimated to range between 3.6 and 5.0 MEUR, depending on the plants’ and vehicles’ lifetime.

The administrative structure for implementing the Waste Shipment Regulation will be established via a forthcoming governmental decision that will nominate the responsible authority for the import, export and transit of waste and require internal application of the notification procedure for transboundary waste transport.

The recently enacted Directive on End of Life (EOL) Vehicles⁷³ will also pose a significant challenge for Romania, which has 2.1 million EOL vehicles, of which 1.6 million are the locally manufactured Dacia brand. The costs that should be supported by the producers for treating EOL vehicles come to 167.8 MEUR for the entire fleet (80 EUR/vehicle), out of which 127 MEUR for the Dacia fleet alone. One difficulty is that many of the vehicle manufacturing companies from Eastern Europe or the former USSR no longer exist, so that Romania’s surviving vehicle manufacturers may end up shouldering the major burden of financing the necessary collecting, recycling, reuse, and recovery system. At present, Romania has only one plant for treatment of EOL vehicles, without fluids and batteries, but this plant would have sufficient capacity to treat all domestic EOL vehicles at the cost of approximately 163 EUR/vehicle. The investment costs that will have to be supported by the national service network to implement this Directive have been assessed by ACAROM⁷⁴ to 20,483 EUR for every repair and maintenance unit (Service Auto), or 32 MEUR overall.

The total estimated cost of investment for compliance with EU waste management requirements is nearly 676 MEUR, out of which nearly 360 MEUR are planned to come from external grants.⁷⁵ Establishment of adequate waste management systems (sanitary landfill sites including closure of existing sites; separate collection and recycling systems) represents Romania’s second environmental priority under ISPA.⁷⁶ About 8,3 MEUR was allocated out of the 2002 ISPA budget for a project concerning the selective collection of household wastes in Piatra Neamt, and another 31 eligible projects have been identified in the waste management sector. In order to obtain the requested transition periods, Romania now needs to develop a detailed financing strategy to show how it will achieve the investments in waste management infrastructure to meet the EU requirements. A preliminary assessment of the overall costs for the implementation of the EU waste requirements will be made within a PHARE 2000 twinning project with France. Affordability will be a major issue for Romanian municipalities.

3.6 Nature Protection

Due to its bio-geographical position and rich level of biodiversity, Romania has highly valued natural areas and various species of fauna and flora. More than 37,500 species have been recorded in the national territory, of which 3,700 are plant and 33,082 animal species. There are 827 natural protected areas, which represent 5.18% of the national territory.

Romanian Network of Protected Areas

The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve has been declared a World Natural Heritage, a Biosphere Reserve within the UNESCO-MAB Reserves Network, and a Ramsar Site. The reserve is the largest and the least damaged wetland in Europe and is managed by the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority. A number of LIFE and international projects have been developed in this area to repair the damage caused by human activity and to restore the natural habitat.⁷⁷

Romanian forests are well preserved and any forest damage is mainly due to natural droughts. Forests are divided in two different categories depending on whether they have special protection functions or are used mainly economic exploitation. Forests under the first category amount to more than half of the total forest area. Monitoring of forests is undertaken by the International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effect on Forests (ICP Forests).

Although EC legislation in the nature protection sector will not require heavy investment, the measures needed to implement their requirements will place a heavy administrative and financial burden for Roma-nian authorities. Furthermore, the Commission has indicated that approximation in this particular sector needs to be prioritised to prevent irreversible damage to valuable natural areas, but also to ensure early identification of protected areas before expectations of increased land value will make it more difficult to ensure effective protection.

The competent authorities in this sector are the MWEP and the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forests. Co-ordination of implementation activities undertaken by both institutions has not been easy and only limited achievements have been made as regards EU specific obligations (such as preparing an inventory of sites and further identification of special areas of conservation and special protection areas to prepare for the Natura 2000 network).

National legislation approximating EU standards for natural habitats is now in place.⁷⁸ There is a good legal framework for hunting wild animals, which is more stringent than EU requirements as it covers all wild animals and not only endangered species. In addition, integration of biodiversity protection and spatial planning has been ensured in national law.

Since 2001, the Council of Europe has been providing technical and financial assistance to implement the Bern Convention on Conservation of Natural Habitats and Wild Life in Europe⁷⁹ via the Emerald project. The project has set in place an Emerald Network of Protected Areas for natural habitats and wild species of European interest including an inventory of biogeographical regions and establishment of a database. Another project drew a CORINE biotope list for sites for Community importance (SCIs) under the Habitats Directive. A number of GEF projects have provided for targeted assistance to protect ecosystems in the Macin mountains and the Maramures area. During the period 2001-2002 many LIFE-Nature projects have been approved.

Cost estimates of compliance have been assessed by the Ministry of Water and Environmental Protection at 3.5 MEUR for the Habitats and 1.2 MEUR for the Wild Birds Directives, respectively. These represent public sector costs for the administrative structures needed to manage Romania’s areas requiring special protection.

3.7 Chemicals controls

The EU requirements with respect to chemicals control are aimed at minimising risk to health and the environment, and at the same time at facilitating the trade in chemicals and chemical products through mutual recognition of safety tests and harmonised labelling and packaging standards. The CEE countries lacked similar marketplace controls during the socialist period, so the task of approximation with these requirements has required establishing new administrative structures and analytical capacity. If the proposed EU Strategy for a future Chemical Policy goes into effect, thousands of chemicals already in use will undergo review and assessment, a burden which the new Member States will be expected to share.

Romania has started to set in place the administrative framework for this sector. In 2001 it established the National Agency for Dangerous Chemical Substances and charged it with responsibility for the framework EU requirements on the classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances. Also in 2001, the MWEP established the Directorate for Waste and Dangerous Chemical Substance Management, which holds responsibility for the EU requirements with respect to asbestos, risk assessment of existing substances, import and export of certain chemicals, and biocides.

Romania is rather advanced in its regulatory system for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs), having fully transposed and almost completely implemented the Directive on Contained Use of GMMs⁸⁰, as well as many of the provisions of the Deliberate Release of GMOs Directive.⁸¹ Transposition has also been completed for the Directive on the Protection of Animals Used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes.⁸²

In addition, Romania has taken significant steps to implement the EU requirements with respect to ozone depleting substances (ODS).⁸³ The MWEP created the Ozone Secretariat in 2001. Together the MWEP and the Ozone Secretariat are responsible for authorising the import and export of ozone depleting substances, granting exceptions, and maintaining a database on ozone depleting substances. A National Training Centre has been established at the Research Institute "ICPIAF-Cluj Napoca", which provides certification of service technicians for the refrigeration sector. Romania has been a party to the Montreal Protocol since 1993, but has still to ratify the Beijing Amendment.⁸⁴

But as noted in the 2002 Regular Report,⁸⁵ much remains to be done in this area, particularly with respect to the framework controls. Drafting of the legislation needed to transpose the EU requirements on the classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances is at a very early stage, yet the stated target date for transposition is 2002. A draft Governmental Order to transpose the EU controls with respect to asbestos is also planned for 2002. The complex EU system of controls over biocides (pesticides for purposes other than plant protection) will also require a special transposition effort, possibly via a Government Decision, which is planned at this point for the year 2005. Similarly, steps have not yet been taken to implement the Regulation on Import and Export of Dangerous Substances.⁸⁶

Moreover, there remains the need to develop capacity for testing of chemicals according to EU methodologies and standards, and for assessing risks associated with their use, prior to determining whether further controls are needed. This will require good laboratories accredited to EU standards for testing chemicals for various properties, as well as specialists trained in carrying out complex risk assessments based on the data generated. Romania may need targeted technical assistance for years to come in order to develop the technical and human capacity required to meet its regulatory role in accordance with EU controls for this sector.

3.8 Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection

The two major EU accession-related issues of concern in this sector are the safety of nuclear power plants and controls to ensure adequate protection from other sources of radiation. Concerning the first of these concerns, Romania has one operative nuclear power plant and another under construction. The EU has no formal standards in the area of nuclear installation safety, which is traditionally an area of national responsibility. Nonetheless, a body of best practices has evolved in the Member States that can be used to evaluate candidate country progress towards a high level of nuclear safety in their nuclear power installations.⁸⁷

Romania’s nuclear power plant, Cernavoda-1, was connected to the grid in 1996. It is a CANDU reactor, a standard Canadian design that is considered to meet western safety standards. Cernavoda-2, another CANDU reactor, is under construction and 40 – 50% completed, with a projected completion date of 2005-6. Only a small percentage of work to date has been carried out on Cernavoda-3, a project that may be abandoned. The National Commission for Nuclear Activity Control (CNCAN), subordinated to the MWEP since 2001, is responsible for overseeing the Cernavoda NPPs.

The Directive on informing the general public about health protection measures in the event of a radiological emergency was transposed in 2000.⁸⁹ Romania has already developed communication systems to provide prior information on health protection measures to the population likely to be affected by a radiological emergency and trained trainers of Civil Protection Counties Inspectorates, concerning elaboration of the county-level Plans for Protection and Intervention in case of radiological Emergency.

The Directive on health protection of individuals in relation to medical exposure will pose significant costs for Romania.⁹⁰ The control system to ensure the safety and safe use of radiological equipment includes mandatory diagnostic reference levels for radiodiagnostic examinations and establishes dose constraints for individuals helping to support those undergoing medical exposure, as well as acceptability criteria for radiological installations. Much of the radiological equipment currently in use by dentists and hospitals will need replacement to meet these standards.

The Council Regulations establishing maximum permitted levels in contaminated foodstuffs and feeding stuffs,⁹¹ as a consequence of nuclear accident or radiological emergency, were transposed in 2002 via a Joint Order of the CNCAN President, the Minister of Health and Family, and the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forests. The process of setting up a monitoring system and improving the existing one will be finished at the end of 2002. Products that do not comply with the maximum acceptance levels are forbidden from human or animal consumption. All shipments of radioactive materials on or through Romanian territory are regulated through an authorisation and control system set up in 2001.

3.9 Noise

Noise levels continue to increase in almost all Romanian cities, with the noisiest being Bucharest, Brasov and Braila. It is hoped that noise levels will come down in the future, as a series of EU directives are set in place. Most of the EU’s current requirements in this sector are product standards and, according to the 2002 Regular Report, additional work is necessary to approximate these requirements.

Romania has transposed the Directive on Airborne Noise Emitted by Household Appliances.⁹² The Romanian Accreditation Association (RENAR) is responsible for introducing the relevant European standards for testing household appliances, and the National Authority for Consumers Protection has been given responsibility for inspection and enforcement. Romania expects to have this Directive fully implemented in 2003.

The EU requirements for noise from equipment for use outdoors have not yet been transposed or implemented,⁹³ though the Ministry of Industry and Resources has produced a first draft of a study regarding the level of noise emitted by equipment for use outdoors. The intention is that this directive will be transposed by 2004, and implemented fully between 2006 and 2007.

The greatest challenge in this sector will be giving Romanian producers sufficient time to make the technical changes to their products needed for compliance.

3.10 International Conventions

Romania’s Environmental Protection Strategy states its aim of strengthening its institutional capacity through participation in environmental agreements and through bilateral, regional and multilateral co-operation. The following table demonstrates Romania’s position, together with the other candidate countries, with regard to selected multilateral environmental conventions:

Table 4.5
Stage of play of selected multilateral environmental agreements

* R= Ratification, acceptance, approval or succession; A= Accession

Within the MWEP, international co-operation and EU integration activities are managed by the General Division for European Integration, Pro-grammes, Projects and International Affairs. One sub-division deals with programmes, projects and international affairs, whilst the other deals with European integration. Romania’s National Environmental Action

Plan (NEAP) contains measures required by bi-lateral and multi-lateral conventions and lists of projects that are financed by the EU or other forms of international or bilateral co-operation.

To work alongside the NEAP inter-ministerial Committee, nine "sector" working groups were created in 1999 to co-ordinate the transposition of the environmental acquis, such as the working groups on climate change, on GMOs, and on ozone depleting substances. Whilst these groups work on transposing the EU acquis they are often simultaneously working on implementation of international environmental agreements.

Concerning protection of the ozone layer, Romania is party to the Vienna Convention for Protection of the Ozone Layer and also the Montreal and London amendments. An Ozone Secretariat has been created within the MWEP. The Ozone Secretariat monitors and licenses imports and exports of ODS in close co-operation with the customs authorities. Romania has committed to reducing its ODS emissions to zero between 2005 and 2015. The intention is to achieve early implementation of the Montreal Protocol and to eliminate use of ODS before EU accession.

Much of Romania’s international effort has been in the field of biological diversity protection. As the last table indicated, Romania became a Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1994. In 2000, Romania ratified the Agreement on the Conservation of Bats in Europe, the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area as well as the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds. Romania is a Party to the Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals and to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat.

Romania is one of the six countries bordering the Black Sea, one of the world’s most remarkable regional seas for its isolation (only the Bos-phorus Straits as outlet) and for the size of its drainage basin (almost one-third of continental Europe). The Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution was signed by Romania in 1992, and ratified in 1993. Romania has also ratified the Convention’s three Protocols (control of land-based sources of pollution, dumping of waste, and joint actions in case of accidents e.g. oil spills). It participates actively in the various regional projects and programmes of the Black Sea Environmental Programme, including the current Global Environment Facility (GEF) Black Sea Ecosystem Recovery Project. Romania is also a Party to the Danube Convention.

3.11 Climate Change

In 1994, Romania ratified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, (UNFCCC) and, in 2001, became the first Annex I signatory country to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.⁹⁴ Romania is an Annex I Party to the UNFCCC, i.e., one of the industrialised countries that historically has been a significant generator of the greenhouse gases (GHG) that are now contributing to climate change.

The Annex I Parties include both relatively wealthy countries that were members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1992, like Denmark, and a number of countries with "economies in transition", like Romania. Because their per capita GHG emissions are higher than those of most developing countries, and because they have greater financial and institutional capacity to address climate change, the Annex I Parties are expected to lead the effort to modify long-term emissions trends. The countries with "economies in transition" (EIT) were given certain flexibility in this respect. Whereas the OECD countries made a commitment to return their GHG emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000, the EIT countries were allowed to select a baseline year before the economic changes that led to big reductions in their emissions.

Romania has made a commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 8% between 2008 and 2012, as compared to its baseline year of 1989. In 1989, Romania’s total aggregated emissions of GHG, calculated as CO2 equivalent, were 271 million tons. By 1994, this had dropped to 171 million tons, just 62% of its 1989 GHG emissions, a decrease largely due to industrial production cutbacks rather than to climate change measures. As of 2000, Romania’s aggregated GHG emissions were calculated at 141 million tons.

In its efforts to return to sustained economic growth, Romania’s GHG emissions are expected to increase slightly till 2008 unless Romania is able to preserve the reductions in emissions by implementing energy efficiency and other GHG reduction measures.

The National Commission on Climate Change was established in 1996 as an inter-ministerial body co-ordinated by MWEP to promote the necessary measures for unitary application in Romania of the objectives of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol.

Under the Kyoto Protocol’s joint implementation (JI) mechanism, Romania and other EIT countries may sell any "additional" reductions in emissions to other Annex I countries that may need to buy emission reduction units (ERU) as part of their own efforts to meet their climate change commitments. Because of Romania’s relatively high level of energy intensity (see discussion on energy in next section), Romania has great potential to attract investments through the JI mechanism aimed at bringing about more energy efficient and cost-effective technologies in the power, heating, transport and industrial sectors.

Towards this end, Romania has already signed JI agreements with Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway and Austria, and is about to sign a JI agreement with Denmark. Co-operative arrangements are also in place with Sweden, Canada and the Prototype Carbon Fund. The first Kyoto commitment period when Annex I countries will be able to exchange ERUs is between 2008 and 2012.

As one of its first JI projects in Romania, the Netherlands has agreed to support a cogeneration and district heating project for the municipality of Targoviste, for a total value of 13.8 MEUR. In exchange, it will receive 1,536,140 ERUs between the years 2008 and 2012, at a price of 9 EUR per ERU. The benefits to Romania will include a more efficient heating supply for the municipality, less fuel consumption and cheaper energy, better air quality for the municipality, a decrease in CO2 emissions, and technologies to enable the plant to comply with EU standards for large combustion plants. The project will provide a positive example of foreign direct investment in municipal infrastructure, which it is hoped will encourage similar FDI investments. Similarly, Switzerland has agreed to provide JI funds for a project to reconstruct the district heating systems of Buzau and Pascani, and Norway has agreed to support refurbishing of the district heating system of Fagaras.

Romania hopes to follow up on these initial JI projects by bringing in other JI investments in energy efficiency and other measures. But to take full advantage of the JI opportunity, Romania will need to develop its institutional capacity and legal framework by 2007, including finalisa-tion of a national system for assessment of greenhouse gas emissions. Hurdles include the need to set in place the legal, administrative and practical instruments for carrying out more accurate assessment of Romania’s GHG emissions, assessing the "additionality" of proposed GHG reduction measures, and monitoring and verification of CO2 reduction measures.

The commitment to prepare for EU accession brings an additional hurdle for Romania. In the first place, it must be able to meet the EU requirements for calculating and reporting GHG emissions,⁹⁵ which are largely in accordance with the UNFCCC requirements. Parties to the UNFCCC were expected to submit their third national communications to the UNFCCC by October 2001, but Romania has not yet submitted its third national communication.⁹⁶

The National Institute for Environmental Protection under the MWEP has elaborated the National GHG Inventory for 2000 and for the years 1992 – 1999. Quality control checks are now being carried out before submitting the data to the UNFCCC Secretariat by the end of 2002. The Third National Communication to the UNFCCC is also in a final stage of development.

This delay in meeting the UNFCCC reporting requirements is an indication of the challenges that Romania will face in meeting the similar EU reporting requirements. These challenges will only increase if the EU decides to adopt a GHG emissions trading scheme, as currently proposed by the European Commission.⁹⁷

The MWEP has recently taken steps to organise a special Climate Change Unit as an important capacity-building measure, building on a previous JI unit that was largely supported by Dutch technical assistance. It has just started work on a National Action Plan for GHG Emissions Reduction that will be issued in mid 2003. The MWEP is seeking assistance for this activity.

Romania’s potential for achieving significant improvements in energy efficiency through JI investments is vast, but this will require development of the capacity to meet this challenge. It is likely to need significant technical assistance in this area for years to come.