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EUROPEAN

COMMISSION

Brussels, 7.7.2025

SWD(2025) 322 final

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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

2025 Environmental Implementation Review for prosperity and security

{COM(2025) 420 final} - {SWD(2025) 300 final} - {SWD(2025) 301 final} -

{SWD(2025) 302 final} - {SWD(2025) 303 final} - {SWD(2025) 304 final} -

{SWD(2025) 305 final} - {SWD(2025) 306 final} - {SWD(2025) 307 final} -

{SWD(2025) 308 final} - {SWD(2025) 309 final} - {SWD(2025) 310 final} -

{SWD(2025) 311 final} - {SWD(2025) 312 final} - {SWD(2025) 313 final} -

{SWD(2025) 314 final} - {SWD(2025) 315 final} - {SWD(2025) 316 final} -

{SWD(2025) 317 final} - {SWD(2025) 318 final} - {SWD(2025) 319 final} -

{SWD(2025) 320 final} - {SWD(2025) 321 final} - {SWD(2025) 323 final} -

{SWD(2025) 324 final} - {SWD(2025) 325 final} - {SWD(2025) 326 final}

kom (2025) 0420 - Ingen titel

Romania 2

Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................... 3

PART I: THEMATIC AREAS ...................................................................................................................................... 5

1. C

IRCULAR ECONOMY

.................................................................................................................................................. 5

Transitioning to a circular economy ..................................................................................................................... 5

Waste management............................................................................................................................................. 7

2. B

IODIVERSITY AND NATURAL CAPITAL

........................................................................................................................... 15

Global and EU biodiversity frameworks ............................................................................................................. 15

Nature protection and restoration

–

Natura 2000 ............................................................................................. 15

Recovery of species ............................................................................................................................................ 17

Recovery of ecosystems ..................................................................................................................................... 18

Prevention and management of invasive alien species ...................................................................................... 23

Ecosystem assessment and accounting ............................................................................................................. 25

3. Z

ERO POLLUTION

..................................................................................................................................................... 27

Clean air ............................................................................................................................................................. 27

Industrial emissions ............................................................................................................................................ 28

Major industrial accidents prevention

–

Seveso ................................................................................................. 30

Mercury Regulation ............................................................................................................................................ 32

Noise .................................................................................................................................................................. 32

Water quality and management ........................................................................................................................ 33

Chemicals ........................................................................................................................................................... 38

4. C

LIMATE ACTION

..................................................................................................................................................... 41

The EU emissions trading system ....................................................................................................................... 42

Effort sharing ..................................................................................................................................................... 42

Land use, land-use change and forestry ............................................................................................................. 43

Adaptation to climate change ............................................................................................................................ 43

PART II: ENABLING FRAMEWORK

–

IMPLEMENTATION TOOLS ............................................................................ 45

5. F

INANCING

............................................................................................................................................................. 45

Climate finance landmarks ................................................................................................................................. 45

Environmental financing and investments ......................................................................................................... 45

Public financial management ............................................................................................................................. 50

6. E

NVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE

................................................................................................................................. 53

Information, public participation and access to justice...................................................................................... 53

Compliance assurance ........................................................................................................................................ 55

EU-supported environmental capacity building ................................................................................................. 58

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

–

Romania

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Executive summary

In May 2016, the European Commission launched the

Environmental Implementation Review (EIR), a regular

reporting tool based on analysis, dialogue and

collaboration with EU Member States to improve the

implementation of existing EU environmental policy and

legislation (

). Following previous cycles in 2017, 2019 and

2022, this report assesses the progress made while

describing the main outstanding challenges and

opportunities

regarding

environmental

legal

implementation in Romania. The purpose of this report is

to provide information on the implementation

performance and highlight the most effective ways to

address the implementation gaps that impact human

health and the environment and hamper the economic

development and competitiveness of the country. The

report relies on detailed sectoral implementation reports

collected or issued by the Commission under specific

environmental legislation.

The main challenges set out below have been selected

from Part I of this report,

‘Thematic

areas’, taking into

consideration factors such as the gravity of the

environmental implementation issue in light of the impact

on the quality of life of citizens, the distance to target, and

financial implications. In Romania, such challenges have

been lingering since the first EIR in 2017 and require

urgent action.

Urgent reforms and investments on

waste and circular

economy

remain insufficient. Further efforts are urgently

needed to reduce Romania’s reliance on waste disposal in

landfills, which remains significant. Despite Romania

having made some progress on closing substandard or

illegal landfills, progress has been too slow and it is paying

the consequent financial sanctions. There has been some

progress in improving and extending the separate

collection of waste, and using economic instruments such

as the extended producer responsibility. Nevertheless,

Romania is in the category of Member States at risk of

missing both the municipal waste and the packaging waste

targets for 2025. Romania is also at risk of not meeting the

2035 target of municipal waste landfilled.

Urban wastewater

collected in Romania is not adequately

treated as required by EU law. Given the slow progress of

compliance with the Wastewater Treatment Directive, in

November 2024 the Commission referred Romania to the

Court of Justice of the European Union for its failure to

comply with the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive

in relation to agglomerations of above 10 000 population

equivalent, which benefited from a transitional period in

accordance with Romania’s Treaty of Accession. Romania

should fully use the financial support provided by the

cohesion policy and the Romanian recovery and resilience

plan to make progress on reforms and building the

necessary infrastructure, as the investment gap remains

significant.

The

air quality

in Romania continues to give cause for

concern in some parts of its territory, with severe

consequences on the health of the population. Romania

submitted its first national air pollution control

programme (NAPCP) with significant delay, but the

measures taken to address air pollutants are still

insufficient. The latest reported data show continued non-

compliance with the 2020–2029 emission reduction

commitments for NO

and PM

2.5

. Although Romania has

made some progress, exceedances above the limit values

remain for NO

and PM

, which require further action.

Despite some progress in the air quality monitoring

network, gaps remain concerning the appropriate number

and type of the air quality sampling points and the data

quality objectives.

Romania’s

overall

environmental investment gap

EUR 5.4 billion per year, representing 1.9 % of the national

GDP, being significantly higher than the EU average

(0.77%). The highest shares are for biodiversity and

ecosystems and water management, and pollution

prevention and control. It is necessary to ensure an

increased level of financing, and further exploit

opportunities in private financing to close investment

gaps.

environmental governance,

Romania has made some

progress with the implementation of the Infrastructure for

Spatial Information in the European Community Directive,

but it should still make spatial data more widely accessible

and prioritise the environmental datasets. Romania has

developed national guidelines on the preparation of

environmental impact assessment reports specifically for

hydropower projects. However, further efforts are needed

(

)

Communication from the Commission to the European

Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social

Committee and the Committee of the Regions

–

Delivering the

benefits of EU environmental policies through a regular

environmental implementation review, COM(2016) 316

final of 27 May 2016,

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2016%3A316%3AFIN.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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with regard to the process of providing information

concerning strategic environmental assessment and

environmental impact assessment, as well as information

provided to the public on their right to access to justice

and improved access to courts.

On the positive side, some

good practices

for nature

protection and restoration can be identified. The financial

instrument for the environment (LIFE) programme has

supported only a few nature conservation projects in

recent years, but these have proved to be of paramount

importance for the protection of habitats, species and

forests in Romania. These include the creation of a

wilderness reserve in the Southern Carpathians, the

conservation of saproxylic beetles in the Eastern

Carpathians, and developing a cooperative approach for

the good management of Natura 2000 grasslands. LIFE

projects on sturgeons have also been instrumental.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

–

Romania

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Part I: Thematic areas

1. Circular economy

Transitioning to a circular economy

Advancing the transition to a circular economy in the EU

will reduce the environmental and climate impact of our

industrial systems by reducing input materials, keeping

products and materials in the loop for longer and reducing

waste generation, thus decoupling economic growth from

resource consumption. A circular economy has

considerable potential to increase competitiveness and

job creation and will also promote innovation and provide

access to new markets. With the 2020 circular economy

action plan (CEAP) (2) measures either in place or

legislatively advanced, Member States will now have to

focus on a swift and effective implementation.

The 2020 CEAP launched the legislative process for a set

of initiatives that will now have to be implemented by

national governments across the EU. These initiatives

were all introduced following a holistic life-cycle approach,

with measures addressing the different stages of a

product’s life cycle, from design through use to end of life.

In the CEAP, the EU sets as its overarching objective the

doubling of its circular material use rate (CMUR) by 2030.

The CMUR is a measure of one aspect of circularity: the

share of the total amount of material used in the economy

that is accounted for by recycled waste. A higher CMUR

value means that more secondary materials were used as

a substitute for raw materials, thus reducing the

environmental impacts of extracting primary material.

Romania’s circular use of materials has been slowly

declining since 2012 and stood at 1.3 % in 2023. This is the

lowest rate in EU, considerably below the EU average of

11.8 % (Figure 1).

Figure 1: CMUR (%), 2013–2023

2013

2015

2017

Romania

2019

2021

EU-27

2023

Source:

Eurostat, ‘Circular material use rate’, env_ac_cur,

last updated

13 November

2024,

accessed

December

2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/product/view/env_ac_cur.

Resource productivity measures the total amount of

materials directly used by an economy in relation to gross

domestic product (GDP). Improving resource productivity

can help to minimise negative impacts on the environment

and reduce dependency on volatile raw material markets.

As shown in Figure 2, with EUR 0.34 generated per kg of

material consumed in 2023,

Romania’s

resource

productivity remains well below the EU average of

EUR 2.23 per kg.

Figure 2: Resource productivity (EUR/kg), 2013–2023

2,5

2,0

1,5

1,0

0,5

0,0

2013

2015

2017

Romania

2019

2021

EU-27

2023

NB: The unit of measurement used is EUR/kg chain-linked volume (2015).

Chain-linked volumes focus on changes on quantities and prices of

commodities in previous years, taking account of inflation, and are

indexed to the nearest appropriate year, in this case 2015.

Source:

Eurostat, ‘Resource productivity’, env_ac_rp,

last updated

7 August

2024,

accessed

9 December

2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/product/view/env_ac_rp.

(

)

Communication from the Commission to the European

Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social

Committee and the Committee of the Regions

–

A new circular

economy action plan for a cleaner and more competitive Europe,

COM(2020) 98 final of 11 March 2020,

https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2020%3A98%3AFIN.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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Policies and measures

In parallel with European initiatives under the CEAP,

Member States are encouraged to adopt and implement

circular strategies at the national, regional and city levels.

These should be tailored to each national and local reality,

to harness the proximity economy’s (

) potential, while

following the principles of a holistic whole-value-chain

approach.

Since the launch of the online European Circular Economy

Stakeholder Platform in 2017 (

) national, regional and

local authorities have used the platform to share their

strategies, roadmaps and good practices, for example

alternative business models and innovative technologies.

Romania adopted its national action plan promoting the

circular economy in 2023 (

) as part of the 2022 national

strategy for the circular economy (

Both the action plan and the strategy were developed

within the framework of the national recovery and

resilience plan (RRP) (

), with the support of the European

Commission’s technical support instrument (TSI).

The action plan sets a clear general direction for

accelerating the transition from a linear to a circular

economy model in Romania. It provides an overview of 14

economic sectors in terms of their circularity potential and

identifies 52 priority actions concentrated in 10 sectors.

These are introduced in parallel with cross-cutting actions,

which include measures on education and vocational

training; research, development and innovation; green

procurement; and encouragement of digitisation. The

action plan provides objectives, implementation deadlines

and tables for monitoring and evaluating progress in the

implementation of actions. To further improve the

monitoring of implementation, a monitoring and

evaluation plan is being developed.

Green public procurement

Public procurement accounts for a large proportion of

European consumption, with public authorities’

purchasing power representing around 14 % of EU GDP.

Public procurement using green or circular criteria (life-

cycle analysis, PaaS (platform as a service), second hand)

can help drive the demand for sustainable products that

meet reparability and recyclability standards.

Environmental criteria have been included in public

procurement in Romania since the publication of Law

No 69/2016 on green public procurement. A green public

procurement guide,

which includes minimum

requirements for environmental protection for certain

groups of products and services, was produced in 2018,

but has since been repealed. The most recent

environmental criteria have been in place since August

2024. In 2022, the legislation on public procurement and

sectoral procurement was amended and supplemented

with provisions on environmental evaluation factors. In

addition, to prevent duplication of legislative provisions,

Law No 69/2016 was repealed.

More recently, the national strategy for public

procurement (2023–2027) was adopted with the aim to

develop a national green procurement plan establishing

multiyear targets for contracting authorities/entities to

implement green public procurement in selected

categories of products, services or works for which the

European Commission has developed ecological criteria.

On 24 April 2025, the government approved the national

green procurement programme 2025-2030.

The EU Ecolabel and the eco-management and audit

scheme

The number of EU Ecolabel product groups and the

number of eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS)-

licensed organisations in each country provide some

indication of the extent to which the private sector and

national stakeholders in that country are actively engaged

in the transition to a circular economy. The EU Ecolabel is

awarded to products with best-in-class environmental

performance. EMAS is a voluntary environment

management scheme aimed at reducing the

environmental impacts of organisations.

As of September 2024, Romania had 123 Ecolabel

products out of the EU total 98 977 (goods and services)

awarded with the EU Ecolabel, and 70 Ecolabel licences

out of 2 983 awarded, indicating low take-up of the

products and licences, but an increase since the last report

nevertheless (

). Moreover, 20 organisations from

(

)

(

)

(

)

European Commission,

‘Proximity

and social economy ecosystem’,

European

Commission

website,

https://single-market-

economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/proximity-and-social-

economy_en.

Circular

Economy

Stakeholder

Platform

(https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/en/strategies).

Department for Sustainable Development,

Planul de acțiune

pentru Strategia națională privind economia circulară,

Bucharest,

2023,

https://dezvoltaredurabila.gov.ro/planul-de-actiune-

(

)

(

)

(

)

pentru-strategia-nationala-privind-economia-circulara-10519261.

Strategia

națională

privind

economia

circulară

https://dezvoltaredurabila.gov.ro/strategia-nationala-privind-

economia-circulara-13409762

https://mfe.gov.ro/pnrr/.

European Commission,

‘EU Ecolabel facts and figures’, European

Commission

website,

accessed

6 February

2025,

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/circular-economy/eu-

ecolabel/businesses/ecolabel-facts-and-figures_en.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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Romania are currently registered in EMAS, an increase of

15 organisations since October 2021 (

With regard to the evolution since the 2022 EIR, the CMUR

of Romania decreased by 0.2 percentage points in 2023,

remaining the lowest in EU. This does not represent any

progress towards the 2022 priority action to take

measures to increase the rate.

The priority action for 2022 to adopt a circular economy

policy framework has been fulfilled.

All legislative proposals in the field of waste management

put forward by the Commission since 2021 are intended

to encourage Member States to promote better product

design, to require producers to cover the costs of

managing the waste resulting from their products and to

ensure that waste is managed at the higher levels of the

waste hierarchy.

Romania has seen a decrease in the total amount of waste

generation over the past 12 years (Figure 3). This trend is

primarily driven by the largest waste category, other

mineral waste, which is mainly generated in the mining

and quarrying sector. When excluding mineral waste, the

trend is similar to those in previous years, and the largest

shares of waste include combustion waste, recyclable

waste and mixed ordinary waste. The trend seems to be

mainly influenced by a decrease in combustion waste,

which nearly halved from 2018 to 2020, before increasing

again. This decrease happened while Romania’s GDP

showed steady growth (except for a drop in 2020, which is

most likely to be due to the COVID-19 outbreak) and the

population slightly decreased, indicating a decoupling of

economic growth and waste generation.

Figure 3: Generation of waste (total and excluding major

mineral waste), population and GDP, 2010–2022

2025 priority actions

•

Adopt measures to increase the circular material use

rate.

Speed up the transition to a circular economy by

implementing an updated national strategy and the

EU framework and recommendations, in particular to

complement it with upstream circularity measures.

Waste management

Turning waste into a resource is supported by:

(i) addressing the full life cycle of products, from

conception to end of life, by setting requirements on

the design of products to ensure that they are more

sustainable;

(ii) fully implementing EU waste legislation, which includes

the waste hierarchy, the obligation to ensure separate

collection of waste, landfill diversion targets, etc.;

(iii) reducing waste generation per capita and in absolute

terms;

(iv) increasing the recycling rates of waste containing

critical raw materials (CRMs), with a view to reducing

dependencies and building resilient value chains, and

stimulating demand for recycled content in all

products;

(v) limiting energy recovery to non-recyclable materials;

and

(vi) phasing out landfilling of recyclable or recoverable

waste.

One of the main objectives of the EU Waste Law is to

decouple economic growth from its environmental

impacts.

The EU’s approach to waste management is based on the

waste treatment hierarchy: prevention, preparing for

reuse, recycling, recovery and, as the least preferred

option, disposal (which includes landfilling and

incineration without energy recovery).

Sources:

Eurostat, ‘GDP and main components (output, expenditure and

income)’,

nama_10_gdp,

accessed

October

2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/nama_10_gdp__cust

om_9301905/default/table;

Eurostat, ‘Generation of waste by waste

category, hazardousness and NACE Rev.

2 activity’, env_wasgen, last

updated 30 September 2024, accessed 22 October 2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/env_wasgen/default/

table?lang=en;

Eurostat, ‘Population change –

Demographic balance and

crude rates at national level’, demo_grind, accessed 15

October 2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/demo_gind/default/t

able?lang=en&category=demo.demo_ind.

Critical raw materials

Romania addresses CRMs and CRM-rich products in

several national laws and initiatives. The main categories

of CRMs and CRM-rich products are, however, not clearly

listed in the scope covered by specific Romanian legislative

tools. These tools are, in particular, the Romanian strategy

(

)

As of October 2024. European Commission,

‘Eco-management

and

audit scheme (EMAS)’, European Commission website, November

2021,

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/emas/emas_registrations/stati

stics_graphs_en.htme.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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for the circular economy (

) and the Romanian CEAP (

which have been supported under the Romanian RRP;

some sectoral legal acts, such as Decision No 1132/2008

on the regime of batteries, accumulators and waste

batteries (

); Government Emergency Ordinance

No 5/2015 on waste electrical and electronic equipment

(WEEE) (

) and Law No 212/2015 on the management of

end-of-life vehicles (

); and the national research,

innovation and smart specialisation strategy for 2022–

2027 (

), which also addresses clean industry, circular

economy and the security of supply of raw materials.

It should be noted that Romania is developing a national

strategy for non-energy mineral resources, Horizon

2035 (

), that will tackle the circularity of CRMs and other

CRM-related aspects.

Romania’s efforts to moderate the expected rise in

demand for CRMs also include increased investments in

research and development and education through its

national CEAP. Envisaged actions include training activities

on circular economy. The national strategy on raw

materials has been adopted by the end of 2024.

Construction and demolition waste

Construction and demolition waste accounts for almost

40 % of all waste generated in the EU. A recent study (

)

by the Joint Research Centre shows that preparing for

reuse and recycling operations are preferred over

incineration and landfilling from an environmental

perspective for most of the difference streams of

construction and demolition waste. However, the

economics are often unfavourable for preparing for reuse

and recycling compared with incineration and landfilling.

If available technology were to be applied, it is estimated

that the increase in preparing for reuse and recycling of

construction and demolition waste would lead to 33 Mt of

greenhouse gas (GHG) emission savings annually (more

than the combined annual GHG emissions from Estonia,

Latvia and Luxembourg).

The preparing for reuse and recycling rate of mineral

construction and demolition waste in Romania in 2022

was 52 % compared to the EU average of 79.8 %.

Measures to further increase the rate of recycling and

preparation for reuse of construction and demolition

waste include separate collection at source

–

for instance,

through digitalised pre-demolition audits (

) (‘resource

assessments’); extended producer responsibility (EPR) and

other economic instruments; and upstream measures

such as increasing the recycled content in construction

products and the circular design (

) of construction works.

Various proposals for normative acts are considered in

view of better regulating the sector.

Boosting implementation

–

the 2023

Waste Early

Warning Report

This section focuses on the management of municipal

waste (

), for which EU law sets mandatory recycling

targets. In June 2023, the Commission published the

Waste Early Warning Report

(

) identifying the general

trends in waste management and the Member States at

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

Circular Economy Strategy for Romania, 18 July 2022,

https://reform-

support.ec.europa.eu/document/download/aa105e25-b9e6-

464e-92af-

7dcf39bbeb50_en?filename=CE%20Strategy%20RO_18072022_F

inal_EN.pdf&prefLang=el

Circular Economy Action Plan for Romania, 29 November 2023,

https://reform-

support.ec.europa.eu/document/download/d73ac95f-6868-

4747-8235-

11864114ecb3_en?filename=CE%20Action%20Plan%20Romania

_EN_clean.pdf&prefLang=bg.

https://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/97608.

This

includes rules on the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal

of waste batteries and accumulators, to promote high levels of

collection and recycling.

https://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/167211.

This

includes measures for preventing or reducing the negative effects

of the generation and management of WEEE by reducing the

overall effects of resource use and by improving the efficiency of

the use of these resources.

https://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/170043.

This

includes measures to prevent the generation of waste from end-

of-life vehicles, and the reuse, recycling and other recovery of end-

of-life vehicles and components to reduce waste disposal.

https://www.mcid.gov.ro/wp-

content/uploads/2022/12/strategia-na-ional-de-cercetare-

inovare-i-specializare-inteligent-2022-2027.pdf.

https://economie.gov.ro/structura-organizatorica/resurse-

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

minerale-neenergetice.

European Commission: Joint Research Centre, Cristobal Garcia, J.,

Caro, D. et al.,

Techno-economic and environmental assessment of

construction and demolition waste management in the European

Union,

Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg,

2024,

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC1354

70.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market,

Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs,

EU Construction &

Demolition Waste Management Protocol including guidelines for

pre-demolition and pre-renovation audits of construction works

–

Updated edition 2024,

Publications Office of the European Union,

Luxembourg, 2024,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/d63d5a8f-64e8-11ef-a8ba-01aa75ed71a1/language-

en.

European Commission,

Circular Economy

–

Principles for buildings

design,

Brussels,

2020,

https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/39984.

Municipal waste consists of (i) mixed waste and separately

collected waste from households, including paper and cardboard,

glass, metals, plastics, biowaste, wood, textiles, packaging, WEEE,

waste batteries and accumulators, and bulky waste, including

mattresses and furniture; and (ii) mixed waste and separately

collected waste from other sources, where such waste is similar in

nature and composition to waste from households (Directive

2008/98/EC, Article 3.2b).

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/waste-early-

warning-report_en.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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risk of missing 2025 waste targets (see Figure 4). Romania

is at risk of missing the municipal waste and packaging

waste targets. Romania is also at risk of not meeting the

2035 target of having a maximum of 10 % of municipal

waste landfilled.

Figure 4: Member States’

prospects

of meeting the

preparing for reuse and recycling targets for municipal

waste and packaging waste

advance of the deadline and submit an implementation

plan laying down the steps they envisage to reach the

postponed targets within a new time frame. Regarding the

2025 targets, 11 Member States, including Romania, have

used this prerogative.

On 20 November 2023, Romania notified the Commission

of its intention to postpone the attainment of the

preparing for reuse and recycling target for municipal

waste and submitted an implementation plan laying down

the measures necessary to attain the target within a

postponed time frame (i.e. by 2030 instead of 2025).

In the

Waste Early Warning Report,

the Commission

recommended that Member States accelerate their

efforts to improve their recycling performance. The

Commission is, on one hand, working together with the

national authorities and stakeholders to speed up the

implementation of measures necessary to meet the

targets, including through dedicated financing. On the

other hand, the Commission is pursuing enforcement

actions against those Member States that, based on data

submitted to the Commission, do not achieve the targets

of the Waste Framework Directive (

), the Packaging and

Packaging Waste Directive (

) and the Directive on

WEEE (

Member States not at risk of missing the 55 %

preparing for reuse and recycling target for

municipal waste and the 65 % recycling target for

packaging waste

Member States at risk of missing the preparing for

reuse and recycling target for municipal waste but

not at risk of missing the recycling target for

packaging waste

Member States at risk of missing both targets

Outside coverage

Source:

European Environment Agency (EEA), ‘Many EU Member States

not on track to meet recycling targets for municipal waste and packaging

waste’, briefing No

28/2022, Copenhagen, 2023. Reference data © ESRI.

The data submitted by Romania show that it missed the

2020 municipal waste targets, the packaging and waste

targets and the WEEE target. Hence, an infringement

procedure was launched in July 2024 (

Municipal waste

Romania’s municipal waste generation has slightly

increased in recent years (Figure 5). In 2022, Romania

generated 303 kg per capita of municipal waste, which is

significantly below the estimated EU-27 average of 513 kg

per capita.

Romania had a low recycling rate of 12 % in 2022, which is

significantly below the estimated EU-27 average of 49 %,

and the trend has stagnated since 2010. The landfill rate

was 74 % in 2022, with no progress made since 2010

(Figure 6).

Romania also reported data to show compliance with the

preparing for reuse and recycling target of 55 % for 2025.

The difference between these (provisional) data, following

the reporting obligation of the Waste Framework

Under certain conditions, EU waste legislation enables

some Member States to postpone the deadlines for

reaching certain waste management targets for municipal

and packaging waste. Member States that want to use this

possibility have to notify the Commission 24 months in

(

)

Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain

Directives,

Directive - 2008/98 - EN - Waste framework directive -

EUR-Lex.

European Parliament and Council Directive 94/62/EC of 20

December 1994 on packaging and packaging waste (OJ L 365,

31/12/1994, p. 10–23),

Directive - 94/62 - EN - EUR-Lex.

Directive 2012/19/EU of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 4 July 2012 on waste electrical and electronic

(

)

(

)

(

)

equipment (WEEE) (OJ L 197, 24.7.2012, p. 38),

Directive -

2012/19 - EN - EUR-Lexhttps://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32012L0019.

INFR(2024)2136; see also

European Commission, ‘July

infringement package: Key decisions’,

European Commission

website,

25 July

2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/inf_24_

3228.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

–

Romania

kom (2025) 0420 - Ingen titel

Romania 10

Directive, and the data shown in Figure 6 (voluntary

reporting) was less than 1 percentage point for the

preparing for reuse and recycling rate in both 2021 and

2022 (

One key reason for the low recycling rate is the low

composting and anaerobic digestion rate, as Romania

does not have enough capacity for the separate collection

and adequate treatment of biowaste (

). The estimated

current capacity for composting or digesting separately

collected biowaste can only treat about 27 % of the

generated amount (estimated to be about

1.7 million t) (

). The incineration rate in Romania is low

but increasing and currently stands at 8 %.

Figure 5: Municipal waste management and recycling

(including preparation for reuse), 2010–2022

Figure 6: Recycling (including preparation for reuse) and

landfill rates (%), 2010–2022

Source:

Eurostat, ‘Municipal waste by waste management operations’,

env_wasmun,

accessed

22 October

2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ENV_WASMUN/defa

ult/table.

Packaging waste

Romania’s packaging waste generation has increased

during recent years (Figure 7), especially since 2017. It

rose from 72 kg per capita in 2017 to 127 kg per capita in

2021, which is still significantly below the estimated

European average of 189 kg per capita in the same year.

In 2021, the overall recycling rate for packaging waste was

38 %, which is significantly below the estimated EU-27

average of 64 % in the same year. The packaging waste

recycling rate fluctuated between around 40 % and 60 %

throughout 2010–2021 (Figure 8). The recycling rate is

mainly driven by the recycling of paper and cardboard

packaging and wooden packaging, as these represent the

largest shares of packaging waste. However, there are

data quality issues regarding packaging waste (

). There is

a large discrepancy between the low recycling rate for

municipal waste and the moderate recycling rate for

packaging waste, and thus the datasets on municipal

waste and packaging waste indicate inconsistency (

Recently, improvements in the data collection and quality

assurance system have been initiated (e.g. external

auditing of EPR schemes) (

Source:

Eurostat, ‘Municipal waste by waste management operations’,

env_wasmun,

accessed

22 October

2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ENV_WASMUN/defa

ult/table.

(

)

(

)

(

)

Eurostat, information provided by Eurostat on provisional data in

response to the reporting obligation under Article 37(1) of the

Waste Framework Directive related to the target on the preparing

for reuse and recycling of municipal waste (Article 11(2c)), 2024.

Commission staff working document

–

The early warning report

for Romania, SWD(2023) 199 final of 8 June 2023,

https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=SWD:2023:199:FIN.

European Environment Agency (EEA),

Early warning assessment

related to the 2025 targets for municipal and packaging waste

–

Romania,

Copenhagen,

2022,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/many-eu-member-

states/romania/view.

(

)

(

)

(

)

EEA,

Early warning assessment related to the 2025 targets for

municipal and packaging waste

–

Romania,

Copenhagen, 2022,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/many-eu-member-

states/romania/view.

EEA,

Early warning assessment related to the 2025 targets for

municipal and packaging waste

–

Romania,

Copenhagen, 2022,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/many-eu-member-

states/romania/view.

EEA,

Early warning assessment related to the 2025 targets for

municipal and packaging waste

–

Romania,

Copenhagen, 2022,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/many-eu-member-

states/romania/view.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

–

Romania

kom (2025) 0420 - Ingen titel

Romania 11

In 2018, national legislation on packaging and packaging

waste (Law No 249/2015) underwent important

changes (

), which led to a break in the time series,

indicated for reference year 2019. These changes resulted

in a strong increase in the recorded packaging waste

generated, while the recycled volumes stayed relatively

stable (

), leading to a drop in the recycling rates for all

packaging materials.

Figure 7: Packaging waste generation, 2010–2022

Figure 8: Packaging waste recycling rates (%), 2010–2022

Source:

Eurostat, ‘Packaging waste by waste management operations’,

env_waspac, last updated 23 October 2024, accessed 28 October 2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ENV_WASPAC__cust

om_842634/default/table?lang=en.

No data available for 2022. In 2018 the national legislation on packaging

and packaging waste (Law 249/2015) underwent important changes by

Emergency Ordinance 74/2018. Break in series indicated for 2019. As of

reference year 2020 the rules for calculating recycled packaging waste

have changed, pursuant to Article 6a of Directive 94/62/EC. The new

reporting rules have been applied in Romania for reference year 2020

onwards.

Source:

Eurostat, ‘Packaging waste by waste management operations’,

env_waspac, last updated 23 October 2024, accessed 28 October 2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ENV_WASPAC__cust

om_842634/default/table?lang=en.

No data available for 2022. In 2018 the national legislation on packaging

and packaging waste (Law 249/2015) underwent important changes by

Emergency Ordinance 74/2018. Break in series indicated for 2019. As of

reference year 2020 the rules for calculating recycled packaging waste

have changed, pursuant to Article 6a of Directive 94/62/EC. The new

reporting rules have been applied in Romania for reference year 2020

onwards.

Policies to encourage waste prevention

Waste management plans and waste prevention

programmes are instrumental to the full implementation

of EU waste legislation. They set out key provisions and

investments to ensure compliance with existing and new

legal requirements (e.g. on waste prevention, on separate

collection for certain waste streams, on recycling and on

landfill targets).

Overall, Romanian waste legislation follows EU waste

legislation. EU waste management legislation was

transposed into national law through a number of laws,

including Government Emergency Ordinance No 92/2021

on the waste regime; Government Emergency Ordinance

No 195/2005 on environmental protection; the Sanitation

Law (Law No 101/2006), which sets out objectives,

organisational principles and obligations for the

administrative territorial units; the Environment Fund on

defining economic instruments for (inter alia) waste

management and landfill diversion, as well as provisions

for administration of the fund; and various other legal

norms covering specific waste streams, such as packaging,

(

)

(

)

Eurostat,

Country-specific notes referring to data on packaging

and

packaging

waste,

Luxembourg,

2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/Annexes/env_w

aspac_esms_an_3.pdf.

Eurostat,

‘Packaging

waste by waste management operations’,

env_waspac, last updated 23 October 2024, accessed 28 October

2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ENV_WASPAC

__custom_842634/default/table?lang=en.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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WEEE, batteries, tyres, single-use plastic and the deposit

return system.

Romania’s national waste management plan (NWMP) and

national waste prevention programme are valid until the

end of 2025 (

). The NWMP needs to be revised to cover

the years beyond 2025 and to ensure compliance with

European waste legislation.

The priority waste streams for prevention are food and

organic waste, construction and demolition waste,

hazardous waste, household and municipal waste, paper

and cardboard, packaging, WEEE and batteries and

manufacturing waste (

Quantitative waste prevention targets are specified, along

with proposed indicators for follow-up. Notably, these

include reducing household waste per capita by 10 % by

2027 compared with 2017 levels and decoupling

packaging waste generation from economic growth (i.e.

the increase in packaging waste should be at least 10 %

lower than GDP growth in 2017–2025).

To reduce household waste, food waste is addressed in

public procurement and through awareness raising, date

marking food packaging and introducing waste prevention

topics into pre-university education (

). Actions to target

the reduction of packaging waste are established through

design and redesign, and the optimisation of packaging to

minimise resource use (

In 2018, Romania established Law No 217/2016, on food

waste reduction, which aims to reduce food waste

throughout the food supply chain. The law simplifies the

donation of surplus food. Several food waste prevention

projects have been initiated, such as the

‘Food

bank’

project, which aims to redistribute food waste in three

cities in Romania (

The 2014–2020 NWMP was the first national document

addressing waste prevention, though the impacts of these

measures have not been evaluated yet. Information

regarding budget or financial incentives are not specified

in the current national waste prevention programme

(covering 2018–2025) (

The NWMP is underpinned by 41 county waste

management plans and the Bucharest municipality waste

management plan.

Policies to encourage separate collection and recycling

The separate collection system does not distinguish

between household and non-household waste. Separate

collection for non-household packaging waste streams is

mandatory. The system relies on bring banks for

recyclables. Romanian legislation lacks a clear definition of

the separate collection service that is to be provided to

residents, and no enforcement measures are expected. In

2020, the National Environmental Guard identified

deficiencies in the implementation of the requirements on

waste collection services. More detailed information is not

available on the degree of service provision for separate

collection (

Romania has firm plans to increase separate collection

services in 2024–2026 for at least biowaste, wood, WEEE,

paper, metal, plastic and glass waste (

). The aim is for the

capture rates of separate collection to be increased by

extending the coverage of the bring point system,

establishing civic amenity sites, and providing composting

units for households in rural areas. Investments in the

infrastructure for separate collection and recycling

facilities is supported by the EU not only through the

cohesion policy but also the recovery and resilience facility

(RRF), and it is planned for these investments to be in

place by mid 2026 (

In Romania, EPR applies to the main packaging waste

streams for both households and non-households, and no

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

EEA,

Early warning assessment related to the 2025 targets for

municipal and packaging waste

–

Romania,

Copenhagen, 2022,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/many-eu-member-

states/romania/view.

Government of Romania,

Planul Național de Gestionare a

Deșeurilor

[National waste management plan], 2017,

https://anpm.ro/documents/16755/42624324/Planul+National+

de+Gestionare+a+Deseurilor.pdf/49fb72f1-81e2-4892-b0a9-

669c74ce95e4;

EEA,

Waste Prevention Country Profile

–

Romania,

Copenhagen,

2023,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/waste/waste-

prevention/countries/2023-waste-prevention-country-fact-

sheets/romania_waste_prevention_2023.

EEA,

Waste Prevention Country Profile

–

Romania,

Copenhagen,

2023,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/waste/waste-

prevention/countries/2023-waste-prevention-country-fact-

sheets/romania_waste_prevention_2023.

EEA,

Waste Prevention Country Profile

–

Romania,

Copenhagen,

2023,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/waste/waste-

prevention/countries/2023-waste-prevention-country-fact-

sheets/romania_waste_prevention_2023.

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

EEA,

Waste Prevention Country Profile

–

Romania,

Copenhagen,

2023,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/waste/waste-

prevention/countries/2023-waste-prevention-country-fact-

sheets/romania_waste_prevention_2023.

EEA,

Waste Prevention Country Profile

–

Romania,

Copenhagen,

2023,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/waste/waste-

prevention/countries/2023-waste-prevention-country-fact-

sheets/romania_waste_prevention_2023.

EEA,

Early warning assessment related to the 2025 targets for

municipal and packaging waste

–

Romania,

Copenhagen, 2022,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/many-eu-member-

states/romania/view.

As noted in the reply to the

infringement

case

INFR(2024)2136.

Council of the European Union, ‘Annex

to the Council

implementing decision amending the implementing decision of

29 October 2021 on the approval of the assessment of the

recovery and resilience plan for Romania’, 2023/0428(NLE),

22 November

2023,

https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-15833-

2023-ADD-1/en/pdf.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

–

Romania

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Romania 13

advanced fee modulation is applied (i.e. fee modulation

beyond the broad material categories, such as higher fees

for difficult-to-recycle plastic types or combinations of

materials). Romania does not apply packaging taxes

except for those on plastic carrier bags. A deposit return

system is mandatory for refillable glass bottles. At the end

of 2023, a system was launched to cover non-refillable

primary packaging made of glass, plastic and metal (

In order to incentivise sorting at the source, Romania has

implemented a volume-based, pay-as-you-throw scheme

in around two thirds of the administrative territorial units.

Policies to discourage landfilling or incineration

In 2019, Romania introduced a ban on the landfilling of

recyclables and a landfill tax of RON 80/t (EUR 16/t) in

2020, which does not distinguish between residual and

biodegradable waste. The landfill tax is considerably lower

than the average landfill tax applied across Member

States. Romania has no tax on waste incineration, as

Romania has low incineration capacity (

Romania has to speed up its progress towards reaching

the 2025 target for the preparing for reuse and recycling

of 55 % for municipal waste, the 2025 target for recycling

of 65 % for packaging waste, and the 2035 target to reduce

landfill to 10 % of the generated municipal waste (

). Until

2022, Romania had not made progress on improving its

preparing for reuse and recycling rate for municipal waste

or on reducing the landfilling of municipal waste.

Romania is currently involved in four ongoing

infringement procedures. Two concern its failure to close

and rehabilitate landfills; for the first infringement

proceedings Romania is paying penalties since the end of

2023. So far, Romania has paid EUR 4 816 200.00. Another

infringement (

) concerns the obligation to treat waste

before landfilling. Romania does not yet have a waste

network infrastructure to treat all the waste generated in

the country. Finally, another infringement, as mentioned,

concerns Romania’s failure to attain the 2020 recycling

target for municipal waste, the 2021 recycling target for

packaging waste and the 2020 collection target for WEEE

(

In the 2022 Environmental Implementation Review (EIR),

the Commission recommended that Romania ensure the

closure and rehabilitation of substandard landfills, and

take action against illegal landfills and fly-tipping; improve

and extend the separate collection of waste, including

biowaste; use economic instruments; set mandatory

recycling targets for municipalities; and improve the

functioning of EPR systems, in line with the general

minimum requirements on EPR (

). Romania has made

some progress on closing substandard or illegal landfills,

with more than half of the landfills subject to infringement

case INFR(2017)2024 already closed; to date, 29 landfills

remain open, with Romania paying the consequent

financial sanctions. Romania has made good progress on

the implementation of the NWMP and waste prevention

programme, although Romania still needs to

revise/update the NWMP for the period after 2025. It has

made some progress on improving and extending the

separate collection of waste, and use of economic

instruments. No clear assessment can be made of the

development

and

running

implementation

programmes for municipalities regarding organising

separate collection and improving recycling performance.

Finally, Romania has made good progress on improving

the functioning of EPR.

Romania has not yet ratified the Hong Kong Convention on

Ship Recycling.

2025 priority actions

In response to the results of the EEA’s early warning

assessment for Romania (

), the Commission issued a

number of policy recommendations to improve Romania’s

waste management performance (

•

Complete closure of non-compliant landfills.

Improve separate collection at source e.g. through

economic instruments, investing in infrastructure for

separate collection, sorting and recycling, and

increasing public awareness.

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

https://returosgr.ro/en;

see also the

Commission

web

page

the

law

(https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/nature-and-

(

)

(

)

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

–

Romania

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Romania 16

Natura 2000 sites is a cornerstone of the EU’s

international commitments, under the BDS and GBF, to

legally protect a minimum of 30 % of its land area and

30 % of its sea area by 2030.

Meeting these commitments requires the full

implementation of Article 3 of the Habitats Directive. The

Natura 2000 network should represent a complete and

coherent ecological network composed of sites hosting

natural habitat types and species of community interest.

Natura 2000 shall enable the natural habitat types and

the species’ habitats concerned to be maintained or,

where appropriate, restored to a favourable

conservation status in their natural range.

Romania hosts 87 habitat types (

) and 245 species (

)

covered by the Habitats Directive. The country also hosts

populations of 148 bird taxa listed in the Birds Directive

Annex I (

As shown in Figure 9, in 2023, 22.7 % of the Romanian

national land territory was covered by Natura 2000 sites

(EU coverage: 18.6 %). Special protection areas (SPAs)

classified under the Birds Directive covered 15.6 % (EU

coverage: 12.8 %) and SCIs designated under the

Habitats Directive covered 16.9 % of the territory (EU

coverage: 14.3 %).

There are 606 Natura 2000 sites in Romania, including 9

marine sites. The latest assessment of the SCI part of the

Natura 2000 network shows that there are a number of

insufficiencies, meaning that Romania still has to

complete its Natura 2000 network. An infringement

procedure has been open since July 2019 (

Considering both areas covered by Natura 2000 and

other nationally designated protected areas, Romania

legally protects 23.5 % of its terrestrial areas (EU-27

coverage: 26.1 %) and 21.4 % of its marine areas (EU-27

coverage: 12.3 %) (

Figure 9: Natura 2000 terrestrial protected area

coverage per Member State (%), 2023

Source:

European Environment Agency (EEA), ‘Natura 2000 Barometer’,

2023 data, accessed March 2025,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-

and-maps/dashboards/natura-2000-barometer.

Designating special areas of conservation and setting

site-specific conservation objectives and measures

In order to ensure that SCIs contribute to the objectives

of the Habitats Directive, Member States must designate

them as SACs, setting site-specific conservation

objectives based on the ecological needs of the species

and habitats present on the sites. The site-specific

conservation objectives must be defined in terms of

attributes and targets that cover the properties of the

feature of interest that are necessary to describe its

condition as either favourable or unfavourable. These

objectives must address the key pressures and threats

present on the site. Article 6 of the Habitats Directive

requires Member States to establish and implement

conservation measures for the realisation of the

objectives of the site.

As Romania had not designated SCIs as SACs and had

failed to set site-specific conservation objectives and

measures, the Commission opened an infringement

procedure in July 2020 in relation to 383 sites (

). In 2023

and 2024, Romania designated 213 SCIs as SACs as part

(

)

(

)

(

)

EEA, ‘Number of habitats and species per Member State’,

Article 17 dashboard, Annex I total, 19 December 2019,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/maps-and-

charts/general-information-on-habitats-and-species-article-17-

national-summary-dashboards-archived

EEA, ‘Number of habitats and species per Member State’,

Article 17

dashboard,

19 December

2019,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/biodiversity/state-of-

nature-in-the-eu/article-17-national-summary-

dashboards/general-information-on-habitats-and-species.

EEA, ‘Number of bird species/populations per Member State’,

Article 12 dashboard, Annex I total, last updated 11 May 2023,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/biodiversity/state-of-

nature-in-the-eu/article-12-national-summary-

dashboards/general-information-on-bird-species-populations.

This counting only takes into account bird taxa for which

information was requested.

(

)

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/INF_1

9_4251.

Eurostat

dataset

env_bio4, protected area percentage for 2022,

accessed

March

2025,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/env_bio4/de

fault/table?lang=en.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/INF_2

0_1212.

(

)

(

)

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

–

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Romania 17

of the infringement proceedings and designated 9

further sites that were not covered by the procedure.

Out of a total of 606 Natura 2000 sites, 339 already have

approved management plans, while 267 still lack them.

Romania has committed to continuing the work of

drafting management plans for the sites without

management plans. There has been a significant delay in

preparing and approving the management plans. There

is also a need to update the existing and outdated

management plans.

Cohesion policy funds for 2014–2020 financed, through

the large infrastructure operational programme, the

preparation of 243 management plans and the

implementation of active conservation measures for 45

sites (covering 243 735 ha). Those projects, which were

not finalised at that time, have been phased into the

2021–2027 programming period within the sustainable

development programme. In addition, the programme is

supporting the preparation of new management plans

for Natura 2000 sites, the preparation of species action

plans and the implementation of measures for the

maintenance/improvement of the conservation status of

species and habitats. Support is also provided by the

Romanian RRP for updating management plans.

In August 2024, the Ministry of Environment, Waters and

Forests announced the merger of the National Agency for

Protected Natural Areas, the National Environmental

Protection Agency and their subordinate bodies. The

newly established National Agency for the Environment

and Protected Areas (ANMAP) has assumed

responsibility for managing most Natura 2000 sites,

previously overseen by the National Agency for

Protected Natural Areas, which had long faced capacity

challenges. However, the agency only became

operational on 3 April 2025. It will be necessary to build

up its administrative capacity so that protected areas

benefit from solid management.

monitoring and reporting, to ensure that data are

not provided only ad hoc on a contract basis.

Recovery of species

One objective set by the BDS is that, by 2030, there

should be no further deterioration in conservation trends

or the status of any protected species. The BDS also

states that Member States should ensure that at least

30 % of species not currently in favourable conservation

status achieve that status or show progress towards

doing so (e.g. by exhibiting positive population dynamics

or stable or increasing range and habitat size), by 2030.

According to the European Environment Agency (EEA),

based on reporting required under Article 17 of the

Habitats Directive, a quarter of species in the EU were of

good conservation status as of 2018 (

One of the primary objectives of the Habitats Directive is

the maintenance of or restoration to favourable

conservation status of all species of community interest.

Moreover, the Birds Directive also aims to ensure that all

wild birds in the EU enjoy a secure status. In order to

achieve these objectives, it will be necessary to address

key pressures and threats. The Birds Directive and the

Habitats Directive lay down a framework of species

protection rules and rules on the conservation of habitats

and species in order to combat these threats.

According to the report submitted by Romania on the

conservation status of habitats and species covered by

Article 17 of the Habitats Directive for 2013–2018, the

conservation status of around 68 % of the habitats and

46 % of species was good. Regarding birds, about 19 % of

the breeding species showed short-term increases or

stable population trends (for wintering species, the

figure was 15 %).

However, for the 2013-2018 report there were problems

with the reported data, in particular uncertainties

regarding the true extent and condition of ecosystems in

Romania. Romania adopted a guidance document for

monitoring birds of Community interest in 2021 and

another for monitoring habitats of Community interest in

2023.

Under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive, Member

States are required to report on the conservation status

of habitats and species every six years. The current

reporting cycle, covering the years 2019 to 2024, is due

for submission in July 2025. Figures 10 and 11 show the

latest available conservation status data.

2025 priority actions

•

Complete the Natura 2000 site designation process.

Ensure the effective implementation of Natura 2000

management plans and sufficient administrative

capacity and financing for both Natura 2000 and the

implementation of the Nature Restoration

Regulation. Ensure the implementation of Prioritised

Actions Framework 2021–2027 PAF.

Enhance efforts to collect reliable data on the

conservation status of habitats and species as well

as their prevalence at the site level. In view of this,

consider the creation of a body in charge of

•

(

)

EEA,

State of Nature in the EU: Results from reporting under the

Nature Directives 2013–2018,

Publications Office of the

European

Union,

Luxembourg,

2020,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/state-of-nature-in-

the-eu-2020.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/maps-and-

charts/conservation-status-and-trends-article-17-national-summary-

dashboards-archived.

Figure 10: Assessments of conservation status of

habitats for the 2007–2012 and 2013–2018 reporting

periods

Agriculture is by far the greatest pressure on habitats. For

species, the development, construction and use of

infrastructure and the extraction and cultivation of living

resources are the main pressures. Romania has made

progress on adopting management plans for Natura 2000

sites, but nearly half of the plans are still missing. It also

needs to make a lot of progress on effectively managing

these sites.

The financial instrument for the environment (LIFE)

programme has supported only a few nature

conservation projects in recent years (

). The number is

particularly low for a country like Romania. Nonetheless,

the projects include the protection and restoration of

forests in the Southern Carpathians (LIFE Carpathia) (

the conservation of saproxylic beetles in the Eastern

Carpathians (LIFE Rosalia) (

) and the development of a

cooperative approach to the good management of

Natura 2000 grasslands (LIFE TransilvaCooperation) (

Under the Romanian RRP, a reform was introduced in

relation to the system of managing protected natural

areas for the coherent and effective implementation of

the BDS. The reform’s objective is to operationalise the

current framework for designating protected nature

areas, in particular by establishing a mechanism for

interlinking legislation specific to individual sectors that

have an impact on biodiversity

–

namely, education,

agriculture, forestry, hunting, tourism, spatial

organisation, transport and energy.

In the 2022 EIR, Romania received a number of priority

actions. While it has made some progress on the

implementation of measures included in the prioritised

action framework (PAF) and drafting site-specific

conservation objectives, progress in most areas has been

scant or non-existent. Therefore, most of the previous

priority actions are still relevant.

NB: The values shown for 2007–2012 and 2013–2018 are not

necessarily directly comparable because changes in area conservation

status in a Member State may result from changes to methods or use

of better data, rather than reflecting genuine changes. The assessments

were carried out at the level of biogeographical regions.

Source:

EEA, ‘Conservation status and trends of habitats and species’,

19 December

2019,

accessed

February

2025,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/maps-and-

charts/conservation-status-and-trends-article-17-national-summary-

dashboards-archived.

Figure 11: Assessments of conservation status of

species for the 2007–2012 and 2013–2018 reporting

periods

Recovery of ecosystems

Agricultural ecosystems

The BDS works alongside the common agricultural policy

(CAP) to support the transition to sustainable agriculture.

The strategy has set five common agriculture-related

targets for 2030, namely to:

—

reduce by 50 % the overall use of

–

and risk from

–

chemical pesticides;

NB: The values shown for 2007–2012 and 2013–2018 are not

necessarily directly comparable because changes in area conservation

status in a Member State may result from changes to methods or use

of better data, rather than reflecting genuine changes.

Source:

EEA, ‘Conservation status and trends

of habitats and species’,

19 December

2019,

accessed

February

2025,

(

)

Council of the European Union, ‘Annex to the Council

implementing decision amending the implementing decision of

29 October 2021 on the approval of the assessment of the

recovery and resilience plan for Romania’, 2023/0428(NLE),

22 November

2023,

(

)

(

)

(

)

https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-15833-

2023-ADD-1/en/pdf.

https://www.carpathia.org/ro/life-carpathia/.

https://liferosalia.ro/.

https://fundatia-adept.org/projects/life-transilvacooperation/.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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—

reduce by 50 % the use of more hazardous

pesticides;

—

reduce by 50 % losses of nutrients from fertilisers

(which will result in a 20 % reduction in the use of

fertilisers) while ensuring that there is no

deterioration of soil fertility;

—

restore at least 10 % of agricultural area to have

high-diversity landscape features; and

—

increase the area under organic farming to at least

25 %.

The “Vision for agriculture and food” (

), adopted by the

European Commission in February 2025, sets a roadmap

to an agri-food system that is attractive, competitive,

sustainable and fair for current and future generations.

To ensure a sustainable future for EU agriculture, it is

crucial that these four priority areas are pursued

together, and that public and private support are

adequately targeted toward this objective.

The CAP and national CAP strategic plans are key

instruments to facilitate and strengthen the efforts of

European farmers to protect biodiversity and the

environment at large. The Commission approved

Member States’ CAP strategic plans

in 2022 for the 2023-

2027 programming period. The CAP is the largest source

of funding dedicated to supporting biodiversity and plays

a significant role in implementing EU environmental

policy. Strategic plans should continue to support the

protection of soil, water, air quality and biodiversity.

While certain CAP result indicators focus on

interventions favouring sustainable agriculture practices

that regenerate ecosystems, the impact of these

measures is difficult to assess. The uptake of eco-

schemes is voluntary for farmers.

The utilised agricultural area in Romania increased from

13 733 140 ha in 2012 to 13 904 640 ha in 2013, and then

decreased to 12 677 580 ha in 2022 (

Landscape features are small fragments of non-

productive and typically

–

but not exclusively

–

semi-

natural vegetation present in or adjacent to agricultural

land. They provide ecosystem services and support for

biodiversity. The indicator

‘share

of agricultural land

covered with landscape features’ is the ratio between

the area covered by landscape features and the area

covered by agricultural land. Based on the Land

Use/Cover Area Frame Survey landscape features

estimates, the share of agricultural land covered by non-

productive landscape features in Romania is 3.4 %, below

the EU average. At the EU level, landscape features cover

5.6 % of agricultural land.

In 2024, the CAP basic regulations were amended (

)

regarding, inter alia, the standards for good agricultural

and environmental condition (GAEC) of land. These

changes removed the obligation for farmers benefiting

from CAP area-related support to have a minimum share

of 3–4 % of non-productive areas or landscape features

in their farm. The amended regulations do not remove

the obligation under GAEC 8 to retain existing landscape

features, but they do set out an obligation for Member

States to establish and provide support for eco-schemes

covering practices for the maintenance of non-

productive areas, such as land lying fallow, and for the

establishment of new landscape features on arable land.

The recently adopted Nature Restoration Regulation (

)

focuses on the restoration of agricultural ecosystems and

requires Member States to put in place measures that

aim to achieve an increasing trend at the national level in

at least two out of three indicators for agricultural

ecosystems (

). One of these indicators is the

‘share

agricultural land with high-diversity landscape features’.

Organic farming practices are highly beneficial to

biodiversity. As shown in Figure 12, it is estimated that

5.08 % of Romania’s land area is used for organic

farming. This is the sixth lowest result in the EU and well

below the EU average of 10.50 % (

). Romania is not

sufficiently contributing to achieving the target of 25 %

of the EU’s agricultural land being used for organic

farming by 2030.

(

)

(

)

(

)

https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/overview-vision-agriculture-

food/vision-agriculture-and-food_en

Eurostat,

‘Utilised agricultural area by categories’,

tag00025,

accessed

5 December

2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tag00025/de

fault/table?lang=en.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1468 of the European Parliament and of

the Council of 14 May 2024 amending Regulations (EU)

2021/2115 and (EU) 2021/2116 as regards good agricultural and

environmental condition standards, schemes for climate,

environment and animal welfare, amendment of the CAP

strategic plans, review of the CAP strategic plans and exemptions

from controls and penalties (OJ L, 2024/1468, 24.5.2024),

http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1468/oj.

(

)

(

)

(

)

Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 of the European Parliament and of

the Council of 24 June 2024 on nature restoration and amending

Regulation (EU) 2022/869 (OJ L, 2024/1991, 29.7.2024),

http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1991/oj.

The three indicators are

‘grassland butterfly index’, ‘stock of

organic carbon in cropland mineral soils’ and ‘share of

agricultural land with high-diversity

landscape features’.

This is based on the latest available information from Eurostat,

which is currently under review; European Commission,

Agriculture biologique au sein de l’Union

européenne,

factsheet,

Brussels,

2024,

https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/document/download/c67458e

d-ec50-4762-ae68-341763ab93c2_fr?filename=factsheet-

organic-farning_fr.pdf&prefLang=en.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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Figure 12: Share of total utilised agricultural area

occupied by organic farming per Member State (%),

2022

Soil ecosystems

Soil is an essential, finite and extremely fragile resource.

Its increasing degradation poses a threat to EU food

security and climate resilience, adaptation and

mitigation.

The EU soil strategy, adopted in November 2021, aims to

support soil protection, sustainable soil management

and the restoration of degraded soils to achieve the

Green Deal objectives as well as land degradation

neutrality by 2030.

This entails:

—

preventing further soil degradation;

—

making sustainable soil management the new

normal;

—

taking action for ecosystem restoration.

The proposed directive on soil monitoring and

resilience (

) aims to introduce the first comprehensive

legislation on the protection of all soils in the EU. Should

the directive be adopted, Member States will have to

transpose it into national legislation and implement it,

starting with putting in place the governance systems

and a sound monitoring framework building on existing

national soil monitoring frameworks. The objective of

the proposed directive is to provide better and more

comparable soil health data with the view of attaining

healthy soils by 2050.

Degradation of soil ecosystems encompasses several

aspects. The proposed directive requires Member States

to assess soil health according to a set of common

indicators and to define the necessary regeneration

measures. The area of soil that is sealed is an important

factor in monitoring land-use change and represents an

important pressure on nature and biodiversity. Other soil

issues related to land degradation are soil erosion, soil

compaction, loss of soil organic carbon, soil

contamination, soil salinisation and the presence in soil

of nitrogen and phosphorus in excess. The impact

assessment accompanying the proposal, which builds on

the data available in the EU Soil Observatory, points to

the following soil degradation issues in Romania (

Source:

Eurostat, ‘Area under organic farming’,

sdg_02_40, accessed

5 December

2024,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sdg_02_40/default/

table?lang=en.

Romania is the Member State with the highest number

of farms (some 2.9 million farm holdings); 9 in every 10

farms (90.3 % or 2.6 million farms) were smaller than

5 ha, but the 0.9 % of farms of 50 ha or more in size

farmed a little over half (54.0 %) of all the utilised

agricultural area in the country. The combination of

intensive agriculture by large farms and subsistence

agriculture by small farms results in a relatively good

overall situation in terms of GHG emissions, nitrate levels

in groundwater and the state of biodiversity. Among the

key challenges for the environment and land

management are the dual pressures of the risk of

abandonment of agricultural activities in some areas, and

pressures from intensification in others. Large

agricultural areas are affected by soil degradation

phenomena (erosion, landslides and desertification),

risks that are expected to intensify as the effects of

climate change increase. The irrigation systems are

mostly degraded and function poorly (

2025 priority actions

•

Implement environmental eco-schemes and agri-

environmental measures and practices to address

the environmental needs of Romania.

Implement and scale up the uptake of organic

farming practices.

•

(

)

(

)

Commission

staff

working

document

–

Commission

recommendations for Romania’s CAP strategic plan,

SWD(2020) 391 final of 18 December 2020,

https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52020SC0391.

Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the

Council on soil monitoring and resilience (Soil Monitoring Law),

COM(2023) 416

final

5 July

2023,

https://eur-

(

)

lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52023PC0416.

Commission staff working document

–

Impact assessment

report: Annexes

–

Accompanying the proposal for a directive of

the European Parliament and of the Council on soil monitoring

and resilience (Soil Monitoring Law), SWD(2023) 417 final of

5 July

2023,

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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The greatest contributor to Romania’s unhealthy soils is

loss of soil organic carbon in mineral soils (

), which

affects 31 % of the national territory and 71 % of

cropland and grassland areas. 22 % of the land

experiences unsustainable soil erosion by water, wind,

tillage and harvest, which represents 59 % of the total

cropland area. 8 % of the national territory has a high or

very high susceptibility to topsoil compaction.

Grasslands

Grasslands are among the most diverse ecosystems in

the EU; they can contain as many as 80 different plant

species per square metre and are home to a large variety

of animals, ranging from small insects, birds and rodents

to large herbivores. Grasslands are essential for

agriculture and livestock herding. Natural grasslands also

play an important role in storing carbon. However,

changes in agricultural practices and land uses have

caused grasslands to disappear at an alarming rate,

making them one of Europe’s most threatened

ecosystems. Extensively managed grasslands include

meadows, mountain pastures, dry calcareous grasslands

and steppic grasslands..

Romania hosts 15 grassland types listed in Annex I to the

Habitats Directive. These include some of the most

biodiversity-rich grasslands in Europe and have been

linked to traditional land stewardship and management.

Changes over the past decades have endangered these

grasslands, including ploughing up, overgrazing and

abandonment. To prevent their continuing loss, it is

imperative that Romania’s grasslands are appropriately

managed.

Wetlands/peatlands

Wetlands act as water sources and purifiers; they are the

planet’s greatest natural carbon stores and they are

crucial to agriculture and fisheries. Peatlands are a

special type of wetland dominated by peat-forming

plants such as

Sphagnum

mosses. Nearly all peatlands in

the EU are habitat types listed in Annex I to the Habitats

Directive. Drained peatlands under intensive agricultural

use constitute only 3 % of the EU’s utilised agricultural

area. At the same time, they are responsible for 25 % of

the GHG emissions from the EU’s agricultural sector.

Restoring peatlands brings multiple benefits, as

peatlands improve water retention and quality, store

carbon, reduce GHG emissions and increase biodiversity.

Among bogs, fens and mires, eight habitat types listed in

Annex I to the Habitats Directive are protected in

Romania. Of these, only one has favourable conservation

status. The modification of hydrological conditions,

mixed-source pollution, drainage and land reclamation

are some of the threats to these habitats.

Romania has worked on actions to restore some of the

degraded peatlands, for instance t

he peatlands identified

through projects

"Strategies for the restoration of

degraded peatland ecosystems in Romania (PeatRO)",

funded under the RO02 Programme "Biodiversity and

ecosystem services", by an EEA Grant 2009-2014, and the

project "Restoration of degraded bogs and peatlands in

the North-East 2 region of Romania (PeatRO3)",

supported by an EEA and Norway Grant 2014-2021.

Romania will consider these peatlands priorities for the

designation of new SCIs.

2025 priority action

•

Implement peatland conservation and restoration

measures and include such measures and objectives

in the national restoration plan.

Forest ecosystems

Forests are important carbon sinks, and conserving them

is vital if the EU is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

The EU forest strategy for 2030, adopted in July 2021, is

a plan of actions to promote the many services that

forests provide. Its key objective is to ensure healthy,

diverse and resilient EU forests that contribute

significantly to the achievement of the EU’s biodiversity

and climate ambitions. About 27 % of the forest area in

the EU is covered by habitat types listed in Annex I to the

Habitats Directive. Moreover, forests host several

species protected under the Birds and Habitats

Directives, including those for which there is a

requirement to designate Natura 2000 sites and to

protect breeding sites and resting places.

Several guidelines on forestry management were

published in 2023. They covered biodiversity-friendly

afforestation, reforestation and tree planting; closer-to-

nature forest management; and defining, mapping,

monitoring and strictly protecting primary and old-

growth forests. Further guidance on payment schemes

for ecosystems services has also been published.

In 2023, the Commission proposed a new forest

monitoring law (

) that aims to create a comprehensive

(

)

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-

07/IMPACT

ASSESSMENT

REPORT_ANNEXES_SWD_2023_417_part4.pdf.

De Rosa, D., Ballabio, C., Lugato, E. et al.,

‘Soil

organic carbon

stocks in European croplands and grasslands: How much have we

(

)

lost in the past decade?’,

Global Change Biology,

Vol. 30, No 1,

2023, e16992,

https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16992.

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

–

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forest knowledge base, address information gaps and

enable a better response to growing pressures on

forests.

Assessments show that, of the 27 % of EU forest area

protected under the Habitats Directive, less than 15 % is

of favourable conservation status (

). The share of

forested areas in the EU with a bad conservation status

increased from 27 % in 2015 to 31 % in 2018.

In Romania, forests covered 30 % of the territory in

2020 (

) and more than 40 % of the assessments reveal

a bad or poor status (

). Primary forests cover a total of

165 000 ha (

Figure 13: Conservation status of forests protected

under the Habitats Directive per Member State (% of

assessments), 2013–2018

On 29 June 2023, the Regulation on Deforestation-free

Products (EUDR) (

) entered into force (

). The

regulation seeks to guarantee that products in the EU

that are made using any of seven listed commodities

have no links to deforestation. The EUDR repeals the

EUTR.

In the framework of its RRP, Romania has initiated some

reforms in the forestry sector. It has adopted a national

forest strategy for 2020–2030, some legally binding acts

laying down the rules on afforestation and reforestation

set out in the national forest strategy for 2020–2030, and

acts amending and supplementing the existing legislation

on forests with the aim of streamlining the legal

framework, combating illegal logging and improving

forest management. These will have to be checked in

light of the new EUDR and the new Environmental Crime

Directive (ECD).

In the 2022 EIR, Romania received priority actions to

urgently take further action against illegal logging

activities, to carry out efficient and appropriate checks to

verify operators’ compliance with the obligations

imposed by the EUTR and to apply appropriate penalties

and remedies for damage done to Natura 2000 sites.

Although some progress has been registered since then,

the priority actions are reiterated, as more needs to be

done. The 2022 EIR also identified the need to adopt a

national forest strategy and to ensure genuine

protection of what should be

‘protected

forests’ under

EU and national law. It was mentioned that specific

national guidelines are needed on managing protected

forests and should offer guidance to all those involved in

forest planning and management. Finally, the need to

ensure that afforestation and reforestation projects are

subject to the relevant environmental legislation and in

line with the requirements of the national forest strategy

was stressed. On this front, some progress could be

observed thanks to the adoption of the national forest

Source:

Commission staff working document

–

New EU forest strategy

for 2030, SWD(2021) 652 final of 16 July 2021, p. 24,

eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52021SC0652

The EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) (

) prohibits the

placing on the EU market of illegally harvested timber.

Council on a monitoring framework for resilient European

forests,

COM(2023)728,

November

2023,

https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/documents-

(

)

(

)

EEA,

State of Nature in the EU: Results from reporting under the

Nature Directives 2013–2018,

Publications Office of the

European

Union,

Luxembourg,

2020,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/state-of-nature-in-

the-eu-2020.

Forest

information system for Europe, ‘Countries –

FISE country

factsheets’, forest information system for Europe website,

accessed

7 February

2025,

https://forest.eea.europa.eu/countries.

Commission staff working document

–

Stakeholder consultation

and evidence base, SWD(2021) 652 final of 16 July 2021,

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/NL/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52021SC0652.

European Commission: Joint Research Centre,

Mapping and

assessment of primary and old-growth forests in Europe,

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2021,

p. 13,

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC124

671.

Regulation (EU) No 995/2010

of the European Parliament and of

the Council of 20 October 2010 laying down the obligations of

operators who place timber and timber products on the market

(OJ L 295, 12.11.2010, p. 23),

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32010R0995.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of

the Council of 31 May 2023 on the making available on the Union

market and the export from the Union of certain commodities

and products associated with deforestation and forest

degradation and repealing Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 (OJ

L 150, 9.6.2023, p. 206),

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32023R1115&qid=1687867231

461.

The law will apply to large and medium-sized companies starting

on December 30, 2025, and to micro and small enterprises

starting on June 30, 2026.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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strategy and

reforestation.

legal

acts

afforestation

and

2025 priority action

•

Take action against illegal logging activities and

apply appropriate penalties and remedies for

damage done to Natura 2000 sites.

Figure 14: Level of adequacy of Romania’s updated

programme of measures under Article 13 of the MSFD

(2022 reporting exercise)

Marine ecosystems

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)

requires Member States to achieve good environmental

status (GES) for their marine waters. To that end,

Member States must draw up marine strategies for their

marine waters and cooperate with other Member States

sharing the same marine region or subregion. These

marine strategies comprise different steps to be

developed and implemented over six-year cycles.

Since the 2022 EIR report, no additional data regarding

Member States’ set of GES characteristics for each

descriptor in the MSFD have become available.

Nevertheless, Member States had to report updates by

15 October 2024, and these are being assessed by the

Commission. In the context of this round of reporting, in

accordance with the MSFD and the Commission GES

decision (

), Member States must include as part of their

set of GES characteristics any threshold values for the

descriptors in the MSFD that may have been established

in cooperation with other Member States at the EU or

regional level (

). Romania reported the Article 8, 9 and

10 data required by Article 17 of the MSFD, which are

now under the assessment of the Commission.

The Commission assessed the updated monitoring

programme reported by Member States in 2020 (

). At

that time their updates on the elements, features and

parameters identified monitoring gaps. The Commission

recommended that Member States should prioritise

work to address those gaps at all levels of

implementation of the MSFD.

Member States also reported their updated programmes

of measures, which are required under Article 13 of the

MSFD and which must be updated every six years. The

Commission has assessed Member States’ programmes

of measures.

Source:

Technical assessment carried out by the European Commission,

pursuant to Article 16 of the MSFD, based on the data reported by

Romania in March and April 2023.

The assessment of Romania’s updated programme of

measures reveals persisting gaps for most descriptors,

although some progress has been made in some areas.

While measures on litter (D10) address input from

activities like fisheries, tourism and shipping, they do not

include riverine litter, which is still a prominent pressure.

For food webs (D4), sea-floor integrity (D6) and

hydrographical changes (D7), most measures focus on

monitoring activities rather than direct actions to tackle

important pressures.

For non-indigenous species (D2), eutrophication (D5) and

contaminants (D8), despite the gap analysis showing that

environmental objectives had not been reached, no new

MSFD-specific measures were developed for these

descriptors.

Prevention and management of invasive alien

species

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a major cause of

biodiversity loss in the EU. Besides inflicting direct and

indirect damage on nature and the economy, some IAS

also carry and spread infectious diseases, posing a threat

to humans and wildlife. Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014

(the IAS Regulation) aims to prevent, minimise and

mitigate the adverse impacts of IAS on biodiversity. It

Commission notice on the threshold values set under the Marine

Strategy Framework Directive (Directive 2008/56/EC) and

Commission Decision (EU) 2017/848 (OJ C, C/2024/2078,

11.3.2024),

http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/2078/oj.

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-

04/C_2023_2203_F1_COMMUNICATION_FROM_COMMISSION

_EN_V5_P1_2532109.PDF.

(

)

(

)

Commission Decision (EU) 2017/848 of 17 May 2017 laying

down criteria and methodological standards on good

environmental status of marine waters and specifications and

standardised methods for monitoring and assessment, and

repealing Decision 2010/477/EU (OJ L 125, 18.5.2017, p. 43),

http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/2017/848/oj.

Communication from the Commission of 11 March 2024

–

(

)

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focuses action on a list of IAS of EU concern (the

‘Union

list’), which is regularly updated (

The third update of the Union list entered into force on

2 August 2022 (

). The fourth update is in preparation.

The IAS Regulation (

) currently lists 88 species subject

to restrictions on keeping, importing, selling, breeding,

growing and releasing into the environment. Member

States are required to take measures to (i) prevent the

introduction of IAS, (ii) ensure early detection and rapid

eradication of IAS and (iii) manage species that are

already widespread on their territory.

This aligns with target 6 of the GBF to reduce the

introduction of IAS by at least 50 % by 2030 and minimise

their impact.

Preventing the introduction and spread of IAS, and

managing them, including through eradication and

control, can result in a substantial cost saving. Studies

estimate that the total cost of IAS in Europe (damages

and management) amounted to EUR 116.61 billion

between 1960 and 2020 (

). More recent studies have

put this cost at USD 28 billion per year in the EU,

increasing to USD 148.2 billion by 2040 (

), and at

USD 423 billion annually at the global level (

There are 22 IAS of Union Concern in Romania according

to data collected and reported in the framework of a

project supported by the Large Infrastructure

Operational Programme under EU cohesion policy, which

relates to the adequate management of invasive species

in Romania. Some IAS, previously reported for Romania

have not been confirmed during the field research (e.g.

Cabomba caroliniana, Myriophyllum aquaticum).

Romania has not yet ratified the International

Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’

Ballast Water and Sediments of 2004 (BWM Convention).

Figure 15: Number of IAS of EU concern, based on

available georeferenced information for Romania, 2024

In the 2022 EIR, Romania received a priority action on

IAS, stressing the need to draw up and implement an

action plan or a set of action plans to fulfil the

requirements of the IAS Regulation.

Romania has taken appropriate measures to comply with

Article 13 of the IAS Regulation related to action plans on

the pathways of IAS.

2025 priority action

•

Step up implementation of the IAS Regulation,

including with regard to enforcement and capacity

of inspection authorities.

Ratify the International Convention for the Control

and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and

Sediments of 2004 (BWM Convention).

•

(

)

(

)

(

)

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1141 of 13 July

2016 adopting a list of invasive alien species of Union concern

pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014 of the European

Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 189, 14.7.2016, p. 4), as

amended by Commission Implementing Regulations (EU)

2017/1263, (EU) 2019/1262 and (EU) 2022/1203,

https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02016R1141-

20220802&from=EN.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1203 of 12 July

2022 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1141 to

update the list of invasive alien species of Union concern (OJ

L 186, 13.7.2022, p. 10),

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32022R1203.

Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014 of the European Parliament and

(

)

(

)

(

)

of the Council of 22 October 2014 on the prevention and

management of the introduction and spread of invasive alien

species (OJ L 317, 4.11.2014, p. 35).

Haubrock, P. J., Turbelin, A. J., Cuthbert, R.

N. et al., ‘Economic

costs of invasive alien species across Europe’,

NeoBiota,

Vol. 63,

2021, pp. 153–190.

Henry, M., Leung, B., Cuthbert, R.

N. et al., ‘Unveiling the hidden

economic toll of biological invasions

in the European Union’,

Environmental Sciences Europe,

Vol. 35, No 1, 2023, p. 43.

IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services),

Summary for

Policymakers

–

Invasive alien species assessment,

Bonn, 2023,

https://www.ipbes.net/document-library-catalogue/summary-

policymakers-invasive-alien-species-assessment.

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Ecosystem assessment and accounting

The BDS calls on Member States to better integrate

biodiversity considerations into public and business

decision-making at all levels and to develop natural

capital accounting.

Similarly, target 14 of the GBF

(

)

aims to ensure the full

integration of biodiversity and its multiple values into

policy and planning and, as appropriate, national

accounting. This requires effective and coherent

biodiversity observation and reporting on ecosystem

condition in the EU (

The amended Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on European

environmental economic accounts (

) introduces new

requirements for Member States to report on the

condition of ecosystems including urban ecosystems,

croplands, grasslands, forest and woodlands, coastal

beaches, dunes and wetlands. Data reported by the

Member States will feed into the second European

ecosystem assessment, due in 2027, and can also be used

to support policy decisions.

An ecosystem assessment is an analysis of the condition

of ecosystems and the pressures acting on them, as well

as the benefits that they provide to people, either

directly or indirectly through the economy.

An increasing number of platforms, networks and

communities of practice involve businesses in protecting

biodiversity, including the EU Business & Biodiversity

Platform (

). These platforms and communities are key

tools for promoting and facilitating natural capital

assessments among businesses and financial services

providers.

The project

‘Demonstrating

and promoting natural

values to support decision-making in Romania’

implements the ecosystem assessment process in the

country. Public policy analysis aims to assess the level of

integration of the concept of ecosystems and ecosystem

services into public policy for 2014–2020 in order to

develop recommendations on integrating the results of

mapping and biophysical assessments into decision-

making processes. An inventory of the responsible

institutions, an institutional map and a questionnaire

aiming to identify institutional needs related to the

ecosystem assessment process have been created.

Romania’s major achievements in this area have been

the mapping of ecosystems at the national level,

achieving

‘Ecosystems

classification in Romania

EUNICE 3’ (intermediate version) and the development

of tools for updating this classification (land field guide

on identifying ecosystems, methodological guide on

assessing ecosystem services). The selection of methods

for assessing the ecosystem services based on the matrix

of indicators and on the comparative analysis of existing

methods is also a major achievement.

Natural capital assessments help private businesses to

better understand both the negative and positive

impacts that they have on nature, and to appreciate how

nature contributes to their success. Such understanding

contributes to the implementation of the

EU’s BDS.

An increasing number of platforms, networks and

communities of practice involve businesses in protecting

biodiversity, including the EU Business & Biodiversity

Platform (

). These platforms and communities are key

tools for promoting and facilitating natural capital

assessments among businesses and financial services

providers.

There is no Romanian business and biodiversity network

member of the EU Business & Biodiversity Platform.

In 2022, Romania received a priority action on supporting

the mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their

services, and ecosystem accounting development, as

well as on supporting the development of national

business and biodiversity platforms. While there has

been progress on the mapping of ecosystems at national

level and on assessing the ecosystem services, there is no

progress on the creation of a Romanian business and

biodiversity network member of the EU Business &

Biodiversity Platform.

(

)

(

)

(

)

Decision 15/4 adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the

Convention on Biological Diversity: Kunming–Montreal global

biodiversity

framework

(https://www.cbd.int/doc/decisions/cop-15/cop-15-dec-04-

en.pdf).

European Commission: Joint Research Centre and EEA,

Ecosystem Assessment

–

Summary for policymakers,

Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2021,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/81ff1498-b91d-11eb-8aca-

01aa75ed71a1/language-en.

Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the

Council amending Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 as regards

(

)

(

)

introducing new environmental economic accounts modules,

COM(2022) 329 final of 11 July 2022,

https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2022:329:FIN.

The EU Business & Biodiversity Platform (https://green-

business.ec.europa.eu/business-and-biodiversity_en)

aims to

promote the business case for biodiversity to businesses and

financial institutions through workshops, seminars, reports and

a cross-media communication strategy.

The EU Business & Biodiversity Platform (https://green-

business.ec.europa.eu/business-and-biodiversity_en)

aims to

promote the business case for biodiversity to businesses and

financial institutions through workshops, seminars, reports and

a cross-media communication strategy.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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2025 priority action

•

Support the development of the national business

and biodiversity network.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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3. Zero pollution

Clean air

EU clean air policies and legislation have successfully

reduced emissions of key air pollutants and significantly

improved air quality, which is now moving towards the

levels recommended by the World Health Organization

(WHO). This has resulted in clear health benefits and

reduced adverse impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity.

However, to achieve the WHO-recommended levels, more

efforts are needed, including full compliance with EU

legislation. To guide these efforts, the EU zero pollution

action plan sets targets for 2030 relative to 2005. These

are to reduce the health impacts of air pollution by 55 %

and to reduce the EU ecosystems threatened by air

pollution by 25 %.

The EU has developed a comprehensive suite of air quality

policies (

). These set health-based EU air quality

standards (

100

) and stipulate Member States’ national

emission reduction commitments (

101

) for several air

pollutants.

The air quality in Romania continues to give cause for

concern in some parts of its territory.

The latest available annual estimates (for 2022) by the

EEA (

102

) for Romania attribute 17 900 deaths each year

(or 185 100 years of life lost (YLL)) to fine particulate

matter (PM

2.5

) (

103

), 3 600 deaths each year (or 36 900 YLL)

to nitrogen dioxide (NO

) (

104

) and 2 800 deaths each year

(or 28 700 YLL) to ozone (

105

The emissions of several air pollutants have decreased

significantly in Romania since 2005, while GDP growth has

continued (see Figure 17). According to the inventories

submitted under Article 10(2) of the National Emission

Reduction Commitments Directive (NECD) (

106

) in 2024,

Romania has met its emission reduction commitments for

2020–2029 for air pollutants non-methane volatile organic

compounds (NMVOC), sulphur dioxide (SO

) and ammonia

(NH

), and has not met them for nitrogen oxides (NO

) and

2.5

. According to the latest projections submitted under

Article 10(2) of the NECD, Romania is projected to meet its

emission reduction commitments for 2030 onwards for

, NMVOC, SO

, NH

and PM

2.5

Romania submitted its first national air pollution control

programme (NAPCP) on 15 February 2023, after the

Commission referred Romania to the Court of Justice of

the European Union (

107

Figure 16: Emission trends of main pollutants / GDP in

Romania (%), 2005–2022

350%

300%

250%

200%

150%

100%

50%

NH₃

PM2.5

NMVOC

SO₂

NOₓ

GDP

(

)

(

100

)

(

101

)

(

102

)

(

103

)

(

104

)

European Commission,

‘Air’, European Commission website,

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/air_en.

European Commission,

‘EU air quality standards’,

European

Commission

website,

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/air/air-quality/eu-air-

quality-standards_en.

European Commission,

‘Reducing emissions of air pollutants’,

European

Commission

website,

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/air/reducing-

emissions-air-pollutants_en.

EEA,

Harm to human health from air pollution in Europe: Burden

of disease 2024,

briefing No 21/2024, Copenhagen, 2024,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/publications/harm-to-

human-health-from-air-pollution-2024.

Particulate matter (PM) is a mixture of aerosol particles (solid and

liquid) covering a wide range of sizes and chemical compositions.

refers to particles with a diameter of 10 µm or less. PM

2.5

refers to particles with a diameter of 2.5 µm or less. PM is emitted

from many human sources, including combustion.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO

) here pertains to a group of gases called

(

105

)

(

106

)

(

107

)

, which also comprises nitrogen monoxide (NO). NO

is emitted

during fuel combustion

–

for example, from industrial facilities and

the road transport sector.

Low-level ozone is produced by photochemical action on

pollution. This year, for the first time, the impact of long-term

exposure to ozone has also been taken into account. In previous

analysis by the EEA, only the impact of short-term exposure was

estimated.

Directive (EU) 2016/2284 of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 14 December 2016 on the reduction of national

emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants, amending Directive

2003/35/EC and repealing Directive 2001/81/EC (OJ L 344,

17.12.2016,

p. 1),

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2016.344.01.0001.01.ENG.

European Commission, ‘Air quality: Commission

decides to refer

Romania to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failure

to comply with EU clean air and industrial emissions legislation’,

European

Commission

website,

2 December

2021,

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_

6264.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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Source:

EEA, ‘National air pollutant emissions data viewer 2005–2022’,

25 June 2024,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/in-depth/air-

pollution/national-air-pollutant-emissions-data-viewer-2005-2022.

the emission reduction commitments for 2020–2029; this

includes a procedure for Romania for NO

and PM

2.5

In the 2021–2027 programming period, cohesion policy

funds, through the sustainable development programme,

provide financing to measures aiming to equip the

national network for monitoring air quality with new

equipment by replacing or upgrading existing equipment

(including relocation /new stations), also ensuring

complementarity with the investments from the previous

programming period. Hence, Romania is advised to make

the most of the available support. For more information

on financing, see Chapter 5.

In the 2022 EIR, Romania received three priority actions.

The first priority action was to urgently adopt the NAPCP.

Romania has fulfilled this, as the first NAPCP was adopted

on 15 February 2023. However, the latest reported data

show continued non-compliance with the 2020–2029

emission reduction commitments for NO

and PM

2.5

. The

second priority action was to ensure full compliance with

EU air quality standards and maintain downward emission

trends. Based on the latest data, Romania has made some

progress in this regard. Since 2019, downward emission

trends have been reported for all main pollutants.

However, exceedances above the limit values remain for

and PM

, which require further action. The third

priority action received by Romania was to improve its air

quality monitoring network. Romania has made some

progress, as some monitoring stations have been added to

the network; however, gaps remain concerning the

appropriate number and type of the air quality sampling

points and the data quality objectives.

Figure 17: PM

2.5

and NO

emissions by sector in Romania

(%), 2022

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

Waste

Transport

Residential,

commercial &

institutional

Manufacturing

and extractive

industry

Energy supply

PM2.5

1,38%

4,62%

85,27%

NOₓ

0,22%

51,79%

11,59%

5,53%

2,02%

1,19%

10,56%

11,54%

14,29%

Agriculture

Source:

EEA, ‘National air pollutant emissions data viewer 2005–2022’,

25 June 2024,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/in-depth/air-

pollution/national-air-pollutant-emissions-data-viewer-2005-2022.

In 2023, exceedances above the limit values set by the

Ambient Air Quality Directive (AAQD) (

108

) were registered

for NO

in one air quality zone (

109

) and for PM

in four air

quality zones (

110

) in Romania (

111

Persistent breaches of air quality requirements, which

have severe negative effects on health and the

environment, are being followed up by the European

Commission through infringement procedures covering all

Member States concerned, including Romania for

exceedances of PM

and NO

limit values. The Court of

Justice of the European Union delivered a judgement on

exceedances of PM

limit values in 2020 (

112

), confirming

the non-compliance of Romania with Directive

2008/50/EC. The aim is for appropriate measures to be put

in place to bring all air quality zones into compliance. To

date, Romania has still not adopted an air quality plan for

Bucharest. Furthermore, an infringement procedure is

ongoing for significant shortcomings in the air quality

monitoring system of Romania. Infringement procedures

have also been opened for Member States not meeting

2025 priority actions

•

As part of the NAPCP, take actions towards reducing

emissions of air pollutants.

Ensure full compliance with the current AAQD

standards, also in light of future stricter requirements

under the revised AAQD.

Upgrade and improve the air quality monitoring

network, and ensure timely reporting of air quality

data.

•

Industrial emissions

The main objectives of EU policy on industrial emissions

are to:

(i) protect air, water and soil and to prevent harmful

effects on human health and the environment;

(

108

)

Directive 2008/50/EU of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for

Europe

(OJ

L 152,

11.6.2008,

p. 1),

https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32008L0050.

(

109

)

(

110

)

(

111

)

(

112

)

Specifically, it affects Bucharest.

The four are

Iași, Gorj, Constanța

and Ilfov.

EEA,

Eionet

Central

Data

(https://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/).

INFR(2009)2296, Judgment in case

C-638/18

Repository

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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(ii) prevent and manage waste;

(iii) improve energy and resource efficiency;

(iv) clean up contaminated sites.

The cornerstone of the policy is the Industrial Emissions

Directive (IED), which was revised in 2024

(

113

)

. The

revision improves the directive’s contribution to the zero

pollution objective. It has a strong focus on innovation,

and builds solid links between depollution,

decarbonisation and circularity, making it a key regulatory

tool to accompany the green transformation of EU

industry by 2050.

The overview of industrial activities regulated by the IED

below is based on data reported to the EU Registry in

2022 (

114

In Romania, around 1 100 industrial installations (

115

) are

required to have a permit based on the IED.

The industrial sector in Romania with the most IED

installations in 2022 was the sector for the intensive

rearing of poultry or pigs (48 %), followed by the waste

management sector, including landfills (14 %), the

chemical sector (8 %) and the metals sector (8 %).

Figure 19 shows the damage to health and the

environment due to the main industrial air pollutants. As

this depends on, among other factors, the size of the

industrial sector in each Member State, the figure also

shows the ratio between the damage and the industrial

activity (expressed in gross value added (GVA)), which

gives an indication of the emissions

‘intensity’.

Although

Romania has the 10th highest damage in the EU, it comes

6th for emissions intensity, above the EU average of

EUR 27.5/EUR 1 000 GVA. The main industrial

contributors to emissions to air (

116

) are the energy sector

and the mineral industry for NO

emissions, the waste

management and chemical sector for dust emissions, and

the energy sector, metals sector and mineral sector for

and heavy metals.

The EEA has identified Liberty Galati SA, the installation for

the production of iron and steel in Galati, Romania, as one

of the 30 industrial facilities in Europe with the highest

absolute damage costs from emissions of the main air

pollutants and GHG over the 10-year period covering

2012–2021.

Figure 18: Industrial air pollution damage and intensity

per Member State, 2021

Source:

EEA, ‘Industrial pollution intensity indicators –

EU large industry

air pollution damage costs intensity’, European Industrial Emissions

Portal,

2024,

https://industry.eea.europa.eu/analyse/industrial-

emissions-indicator.

Overall, the industrial emissions to water in the EU have

decreased over time for all the main pollutants. On

average in the EU, they appear to be decoupled from the

industrial activity, which has increased over the same

period (expressed in GVA), as shown in Figure 20.

Figure 19: Industrial releases of pollutants to water and

industrial activity in the EU-27

NB: Cd, cadmium; Hg, mercury; Ni, nickel; Pb, lead; TOC, total organic

carbon; total N, total nitrogen; total P, total phosphorous.

Source:

EEA, ‘Industrial pollutant releases to water in Europe’, 30

May

2024,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/indicators/industrial-

pollutant-releases-to-water.

Concerning Romania in particular, Figure 20 shows the

industrial emissions of heavy metals to water, taking into

account the human toxicity of each metal, as well as the

emissions intensity, based on its ratio with industrial

(

113

)

Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial and livestock rearing

emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control) (OJ L 334,

17.12.2010, p. 17), as amended by Directive (EU) 2024/1785 of the

European Parliament and of the Council of 24 April 2024,

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02010L0075-

20240804&qid=1725983863299.

(

114

)

(

115

)

(

116

)

EEA,

European

Industrial

Emissions

Portal,

https://industry.eea.europa.eu/,

2022 being the baseline year for

all reports.

Note that 2022 is used as the baseline for all Member States.

European Environment Agency, LRTAP, Air pollutant emissions

data viewer (Gothenburg Protocol, LRTAP Convention) 1990-2022,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/in-depth/air-

pollution/air-pollutant-emissions-data-viewer-1990-2022.

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activity (expressed in GVA). Romania has the 14th highest

emissions of heavy metals to water and is in 13th position

for emissions intensity (below the EU average of

0.864 kg/EUR 1 billion GVA).

Figure 20: Industrial releases and intensity of heavy

metals to water per Member State, 2022

infringements of IED-based national provisions. In the

revised directive, the provisions set that worst

infringements can be sanctioned by fines of at least 3% of

the annual EU turnover of the legal person. The revised

IED also introduces a right to compensation for people

whose health has been harmed by such infringements.

The development of best available techniques (BATs), BAT

reference documents and BAT conclusions ensures

effective collaboration between stakeholders and enables

better implementation of the IED.

Since the 2022 EIR, the Commission has adopted BAT

conclusions on (i) ferrous metal processing, (ii) the textiles

industry, (iii) common waste gas management and

treatment systems in the chemical sector and (iv)

smitheries and foundries.

The Commission relies on the efforts of national

competent authorities to implement the legally binding

BAT conclusions and associated BAT emission levels

specified in environmental permits. This should result in

considerable and continuous reductions in pollution.

In 2022, Romania received priority actions to review

permits to ensure that they comply with the newly

adopted BAT conclusions and to continue addressing

pollution from the energy sector. Considering the data

reported in the Industrial Emission Portal, some progress

is evident regarding the energy sector. The level of NO

the air has reduced by 30 % since 2017, despite total

organic carbon releases to water from waste management

increasing by 10 % since 2017.

Source:

EEA, ‘Industrial pollution intensity indicators –

EU large industry

water pollution intensity’, European Industrial Emissions Portal, 2024,

https://industry.eea.europa.eu/analyse/industrial-emissions-indicator.

As shown in Figure 21, the main industrial contributors to

emissions to water in Romania are the mineral extractive

industry for heavy metals, refineries for phosphorus and

chemicals for total organic carbon.

Figure 21: Relative releases to water from industry in

Romania (%), 2022

2025 priority actions

•

Source:

EEA, ‘Industrial

reporting under the Industrial Emissions Directive

2010/75/EU and European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register

Regulation (EC) No 166/2006

–

ver.

12.0 Sep. 2024 (tabular data)’, EEA

Geospatial

Data

Catalogue,

13 September

2024,

https://doi.org/10.2909/cf5e54c1-be99-4426-bcad-baa26c4f27a0.

•

Reduce industrial air pollution damage and intensity.

Reduce industrial releases to water and their

intensity.

Engage with industry and environmental NGOs to

ensure proper contribution to and implementation of

BAT conclusions and ensure timely updates to permits

following the publication of BAT conclusions.

Ensure effective public participation and access to

justice in relation to the IED.

IED provisions on public information and participation

require Member States to adopt transposition legislation

enabling members of the public to have access to relevant

information and participate in the approval process for

potentially polluting installations. Thus, the public and

non-governmental organisations (NGOs), alongside

competent authorities, play a role in ensuring compliance

of these permits with EU legislation. The IED contains

mandatory requirements on environmental inspections,

requiring a site visit to take place at least every 1–3 years,

using risk-based criteria. In addition, IED enforcement

provisions require Member States to determine effective,

proportionate, and dissuasive penalties applicable to

Major industrial accidents prevention

–

Seveso

The main objectives of EU policy on the prevention of

major industrial accidents are to:

(i) control major-accident hazards involving dangerous

substances, especially chemicals;

(ii) limit the consequences of such accidents for human

health and the environment;

(iii) continuously

improve

the

prevention

of,

preparedness for and response to major accidents.

The cornerstone of the policy is Directive 2012/18/EU (the

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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Seveso III Directive)

(

117

)

The overview below of industrial plants regulated by the

Seveso III Directive (‘Seveso establishments’) is based on

data reported on eSPIRS (e-Seveso Plants Information

Retrieval System) for 2022–2024) (

118

) and the report by

Romania on the implementation of the Seveso III Directive

for 2019–2022 (

119

In 2024, out of the 259 Seveso establishments in Romania,

145 are categorised as lower-tier establishments and 114

as upper-tier establishments (UTEs), based on the quantity

of hazardous substances likely to be present. UTEs are

subject to more stringent requirements. The change in the

number of Seveso establishments is presented in

Figure 23.

Figure 22: Number of Seveso establishments in Romania,

2018, 2022 and 2024

Sources: European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment,

Assessment and summary of Member States’ implementation reports for

Implementing Decision 2014/896/EU (implementing Directive

2012/18/EU on the control of major accident hazards involving

dangerous substances), Publications Office of the European Union,

Luxembourg,

2022,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/94d57d74-735b-11ec-9136-01aa75ed71a1/language-

en/format-PDF/source-search;

eSPIRS data, extractions from 2022 and

2024; Analysis and summary of Member States' reports on

implementation of Directive 2012/18/EU on the control of major accident

hazards involving dangerous substances according to the format

established by Commission Implementing Decision 2014/896/EU -

Publications Office of the EU,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-

detail/-/publication/9bd73087-e9b8-11ef-b5e9-

01aa75ed71a1/language-en.

and tested over the last three years. The summary is

shown in Figure 24.

Figure 23: Situation regarding EEPs in Romania, 2018

NB: LTE, lower-tier establishment.

Sources: European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment,

Assessment and summary of Member States’ implementation reports for

Implementing Decision 2014/896/EU (implementing Directive

2012/18/EU on the control of major accident hazards involving

dangerous substances), Publications Office of the European Union,

Luxembourg,

2022,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/94d57d74-735b-11ec-9136-01aa75ed71a1/language-

en/format-PDF/source-search;

eSPIRS data, extractions from 2022 and

2024; Analysis and summary of Member States' reports on

implementation of Directive 2012/18/EU on the control of major accident

hazards involving dangerous substances according to the format

established by Commission Implementing Decision 2014/896/EU -

Publications Office of the EU,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-

detail/-/publication/9bd73087-e9b8-11ef-b5e9-

01aa75ed71a1/language-en.

The information for the public referred to in Annex V to

the Seveso III Directive

–

especially about how the public

concerned will be warned if there is a major accident, the

appropriate behaviour in the event of a major accident,

and the date of the last site visit

–

is permanently available

for all UTEs in Romania.

The shares of UTEs for which information on safety

measures and requisite behaviours was actively made

available to the public in 2022 in the EU-27 are presented

in Figure 25. This provision on knowledge is an important

provision of the Seveso III Directive, as awareness by the

public of this information may ameliorate the

consequences of a major industrial accident.

ember States are required to draw up external

emergency plans (EEPs). These EEPs are essential to allow

proper preparation and effective implementation of the

necessary actions to protect the environment and the

population should a major industrial accident occur.

According to Romania, in 2018, an EEP was required for all

115 UTEs. At that time, all of them had been established

(

117

)

Directive 2012/18/EU of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 4 July 2012 on the control of major-accident hazards

involving dangerous substances, amending and subsequently

repealing Council Directive 96/82/EC (OJ L 197, 24.7.2012, p. 1),

(

118

)

(

119

)

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2012/18/oj.

https://espirs.jrc.ec.europa.eu/en/espirs/content;

data extracted

in September 2024.

As provided for by Article 21(2) of the Seveso III Directive.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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Figure 24: Share of UTEs for which information on safety

measures and requisite behaviours was actively made

available to the public per Member State (%), 2022

the environment from anthropogenic emissions and

releases of mercury and mercury compounds. The revision

of the Mercury Regulation adopted in 2024 sets out rules

to address the last intentional uses of mercury in the EU

by phasing out the use of dental amalgam by 1 January

2025 except when deemed strictly necessary by the dental

practitioner based on the specific medical needs of the

patient, and prohibiting the manufacture and export of

additional mercury-containing lamps from 1 January 2026

or 1 January 2027 (depending on the lamp category).

Measures should have been put in place in Romania to

ensure a socially and economically sound phase-out,

including an adequate reimbursement of the alternatives

to dental amalgam through the health insurance scheme

and the training of dental practitioners. The Commission

is monitoring whether the phase-out has taken place

under the terms and conditions of the regulation. Romania

will also need to ensure that the manufacture and export

of mercury-containing lamps are prohibited by the

deadlines set out in the Mercury Regulation.

NB: No data available for Greece.

Sources: European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment,

Assessment and summary of Member States’ implementation reports for

Implementing Decision 2014/896/EU (implementing Directive

2012/18/EU on the control of major accident hazards involving

dangerous substances), Publications Office of the European Union,

Luxembourg,

2022,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/94d57d74-735b-11ec-9136-01aa75ed71a1/language-

en/format-PDF/source-search;

eSPIRS data, extractions from 2022 and

2024; Analysis and summary of Member States' reports on

implementation of Directive 2012/18/EU on the control of major accident

hazards involving dangerous substances according to the format

established by Commission Implementing Decision 2014/896/EU -

Publications Office of the EU,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-

detail/-/publication/9bd73087-e9b8-11ef-b5e9-

01aa75ed71a1/language-en.

Noise

The Environmental Noise Directive (

120

) requires a

common approach to avoid, prevent and reduce the

harmful effects of noise. The designated authorities are

responsible for making and approving noise maps and

action plans for agglomerations, major roads, major

railways and major airports. Member States decide on

noise limits that are not set at the EU level. Nevertheless,

the zero pollution action plan sets as a 2030 target a 30 %

reduction compared with 2017 in the share of people

chronically disturbed by transport noise.

Excessive noise from aircraft, railways and roads is one of

the main causes of environmental health‐related issues in

the EU. It can cause ischaemic heart disease, stroke,

interrupted sleep, cognitive impairment and stress (

121

In Romania, environmental noise is estimated to cause at

least around 1 900 cases of ischaemic heart disease

annually (

122

) and some 180 000 people to suffer from

disturbed sleep (

123

In 2022, Romania received a priority action to strengthen

control and enforcement to ensure compliance with the

Seveso III Directive rules, especially those on information

for the public. Substantial progress has been made in that

regard.

Mercury Regulation

The Mercury Regulation establishes measures and

conditions concerning the use and storage of and trade in

mercury, mercury compounds and mixtures of mercury,

the manufacture and use of and trade in mercury-added

products and the management of mercury waste, in order

to ensure a high level of protection of human health and

(

120

)

Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 25 June 2002 relating to the assessment and

management of environmental noise

–

Declaration by the

Commission in the Conciliation Committee on the directive

relating to the assessment and management of environmental

noise (OJ L 189, 18.7.2002, p. 12),

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32002L0049.

WHO

Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region,

Copenhagen,

2018,

https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/978928905356

These figures are an estimation by the EEA based on (i) the data

reported by Member States on noise exposure covered by

Directive 2002/49/EC for the round of noise mapping of 2022; (ii)

(

121

)

(

122

)

(

123

)

European Topic Centre on Air Pollution, Transport, Noise and

Industrial Pollution (ETC/ATNI),

Noise Indicators under the

Environmental Noise Directive 2021: Methodology for estimating

missing data,

Eionet report ETC/ATNI No 2021/06, Kjeller, 2021;

and (iii) the methodology for health impact calculations in

European Topic Centre on Air Pollution and Climate Change

Mitigation (ETC/ACM),

Implications of environmental noise on

health and wellbeing in Europe,

Eionet report ETC/ACM No

2018/10,

Bilthoven,

2018,

https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-atni/products/etc-atni-

reports/eionet_rep_etcacm_2018_10_healthimplicationsnoise.

More information on the adverse health effects of noise pollution

is available at:

https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/human/noise/noise-2

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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Based on the latest set of information analysed, Romania

has completed noise mapping for airports and major

railways, while noise mapping for major roads and

agglomerations remains incomplete.

Since Romania failed to report to the Commission all

relevant information on the strategic noise maps,

including the noise exposure of the population, the

European Commission decided to open an infringement

procedure against Romania (

124

Action plans for noise management for agglomerations,

roads, railways and airports must be updated and

submitted to the Commission every five years. The

deadline for reporting noise action plans under the most

recent reporting cycle was 18 January 2025; these plans

have not been assessed yet.

prevention of further deterioration and restoration to

good status. These objectives are very important for the

EU’s competitiveness, strategic autonomy and security,

yet have become even more challenging in the face of

climate change affecting our precious water resources.

The Water Framework Directive establishes a procedural

framework for reaching good surface water ecological and

chemical status and good groundwater quantitative and

chemical status. This implies monitoring and classification

of all waterbodies, assessment of pressures and impacts

and identification of the most cost-effective measures to

achieve the objectives of the directive. The directive dates

from 2000 and set an initial deadline of 2015 for achieving

its objectives, with the option to extend the deadline to

the end of 2027. Every six years, Member States must

report their river basin management plans (RBMPs) to the

Commission. They should cover river basin districts in their

countries, some of which may be shared with other

countries. The Commission has assessed the third cycle of

RBMPs, which were to be submitted by March 2022, and

reported its findings to the European Parliament and to

the Council on 4

February 2025 (

128

Romania has 3 026 surface waterbodies and 143

groundwater bodies, divided over one river basin district

(Danube). Approximately 16 % of surface waters are

designated as

‘heavily

modified’ and about 2 % as

‘artificial’.

Heavily modified and artificial waterbodies

must reach good ecological potential rather than good

ecological status, which means that all measures must be

taken to mitigate the adverse impact of the sustainable

human development activities causing the water body to

be heavily modified / artificial, while not significantly

affecting these activities.

Figures 25–28 show the change in ecological

status/potential and of chemical status of surface waters,

and the quantitative and chemical status of groundwater

in 2010, 2015 and 2021.

It follows from the assessment of the third RBMP that

there has been a slight improvement in the ecological

status/potential of surface waterbodies, and a slight

deterioration in their chemical status, compared with the

status reported in the second RBMP (covering 2015–

lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A31991L0271),

the

new

Drinking

Water

Directive

(https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32020L2184),

the

Nitrates

Directive

(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/ALL/?uri=celex%3A31991L0676),

the

MSFD

(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32008L0056)

and the IED

(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32010L0075).

ENV

Library,

https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/circabc-

ewpp/ui/group/c04f478b-d4dc-44f9-a211-

087c01165b2c/library/faada4be-9fc3-4a48-b972-

f71e356019d5?p=1&n=10&sort=modified_DESC.

2025 priority actions

•

Complete noise mapping.

Complete and implement action plans on noise

management.

Water quality and management

EU legislation and policy requires that the impact of

pressures on transitional waters, coastal waters and fresh

water (including surface waters and groundwater) be

significantly reduced. Achieving, maintaining or enhancing

a good status of waterbodies as defined by the Water

Framework Directive will ensure that EU citizens benefit

from good-quality and safe drinking and bathing water. It

will further ensure that the nutrient cycle (nitrogen and

phosphorus) is managed in a more sustainable and

resource-efficient way.

Water Framework Directive

The Water Framework Directive (

125

) is the cornerstone of

EU water policy in the 21st century (

126

). The Water

Framework Directive and other water-related

directives (

127

) form the basis of sustainable and

integrated water management in the EU. They aim to

achieve a high level of protection of water resources,

(

124

) INFR(2024)2200.

(

125

)

(

126

)

(

127

)

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32000L0060.

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/water_en.

These include the Groundwater Directive (https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32006L0118),

the Environmental Quality Standards Directive (https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2008/105/oj),

the

Floods

Directive

(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32007L0060),

the Bathing Water

Directive

(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32006L0007),

the

Urban

Wastewater

Treatment

Directive

(https://eur-

(

128

)

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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2021). There has been no deterioration in the quantitative

status of groundwater bodies, which are all reported to be

in good status, and there has been a slight improvement

in their chemical status.

Figure 25: Ecological status/potential

waterbodies in each RBMP cycle (%)

surface

Figure 27: Quantitative status of groundwater bodies in

each RBMP cycle (%)

The third RBMP reports that 100 % of groundwater bodies

have good quantitative status and that no groundwater

bodies are at risk of failing to achieve good quantitative

status by 2027.

Approximately 67 % of surface waterbodies have good

ecological

status/potential,

showing

minor

improvement since the second RBMP. Monitoring

programmes have improved, and new monitoring sites

have been added.

87.7 % of surface waterbodies are expected to achieve

good ecological status/potential by 2027.

Figure 26: Chemical status of surface waterbodies in each

RBMP cycle (%)

The percentage of classifications with high confidence

amounted to 84.6 % of the assessments in the third RBMP.

However, a significant portion of the classifications

(15.4 %) were still conducted with low confidence.

Figure 28: Chemical status of groundwater bodies in each

RBMP cycle (%)

SWB chemical status for RO

3rd

2nd

1st

100

Good

ailing to achieve good

Unknown

91.6 % of groundwater bodies are reported to have good

chemical status, showing a slight improvement from the

second RBMP.

The percentage of classifications with high or medium

confidence has remained the same since the second

RBMP, at 97.9 % of the assessments.

8.4 % of groundwater bodies are expected to fail to

achieve good chemical status by 2027.

Until the end of 2027, Member States can still apply time-

related exemptions, subject to providing evidence of

compliance with the strict criteria set out in the Water

Framework Directive. After 2027, the possibilities for

applying exemptions will be much more limited.

The 2022 EIR identified the following priority actions.

•

Strengthen the monitoring of surface waters by

covering all relevant quality elements in all water

categories, including hydromorphological quality

97.6 % of surface waterbodies are reported to have good

chemical status.

Failure to achieve good chemical status is mostly due to

ubiquitous persistent bioaccumulative and toxic

substances, which are difficult to address and often have

transboundary sources. In Romania, these are mainly

mercury and polybrominated diphenyl ethers.

The percentage of surface waterbodies expected to

achieve good chemical status by 2027 is approximately the

same as the results published in the third RBMP.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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elements, and improve quantitative and chemical

groundwater monitoring.

Ensure that projects with the potential to affect the

status of waterbodies are thoroughly assessed and

justified in line with the requirements of the Water

Framework Directive (Article 4(7)).

•

Improve hydromorphological measures to meet

objectives.

Reduce pollution from nutrients, chemicals, metals

and saline discharges.

Improve the classification of waterbodies, reduce the

gap to objectives and better justify exemptions.

•

Some progress has been made regarding all of these

priority actions.

In the third RBMP, the number of monitoring sites and the

proportion of surface waterbodies covered by monitoring

of ecological status has significantly increased in terms of

surveillance and operational monitoring, especially in

rivers and lakes. There has been a slight decrease in

quantitative monitoring, related to changes made to

adjust the monitoring network, but additional elements

have been taken into consideration. Regarding chemical

status, greater effort has been put into operational

monitoring and less on surveillance, and efforts have been

made to increase the number of substances monitored.

Projects with the potential to affect the status of water

have been subject to an impact assessment. The third

RBMP also provides a general indication that, for

Article 4(7) applications, steps have been taken / will be

taken to mitigate the adverse impacts on the status of the

waterbodies affected.

It is worth noting that Romania has developed national

guidelines on the preparation of environmental impact

assessment (EIA) reports specifically for hydropower

projects.

Romania is facing water scarcity, as evidenced by the

Seasonal Water Exploitation Index + (

129

). In 2022, this

index reaches 32,5% which is much above the 20%

generally considered as a sign of scarcity in the third

quarter of the year. Above 40%, it would be a sign of

severe scarcity. This seasonal index at national level does

not reflect the situation at river basin level (

130

) where

more acute water stress can be recorded.

Floods Directive

Every six years, following the same reporting cycle as the

RBMPs, all Member States also report their flood risk

management plans (FRMPs), based on the flood hazard

and risk maps (FHRMs) and the preliminary flood risk

assessments drawn up during the second cycle (2016–

2021).

The Commission assessed the FRMPs and reported its

findings to the European Parliament and to the Council on

February 2025, together with the assessment of the

RBMPs.

In the second FRMPs, Romania identified progress

indicators that have clear targets linked to the level of

priority of the strategies for the areas of potential

significant flood risk. Although the FRMPs only provide a

link between the nine objectives and the three broad

categories of measures, a national methodology was used

to develop the measures along the lines of the objectives.

In addition, the second FRMPs provide information on the

methodology for the prioritisation of measures, the

estimated costs for the implementation of the measures

and funding sources for some of the measures. Unlike the

first FRMPs, the second FRMPs refer to Romania’s national

climate change strategy and provide information on the

potential impacts of climate change on floods.

Furthermore, robustness tests for vulnerability to climate

change have been carried out. The FRMPs provide

information on public consultation and stakeholder

involvement.

2025 priority actions

•

FRMPs should provide details on how the FHRMs

were used in the choice of measures and how to

consider pluvial flooding.

Consider future climate scenarios in FRMPs.

Better explain the choice and implementation of flood

prevention and protection measures (prioritisation,

monitoring, costs of measures).

Improve public consultation and stakeholder

involvement.

2025 priority actions

Without prejudice to the list of recommended actions in

the Commission report to the European Parliament and to

the Council on the assessment of the third RBMPs, the

following priority actions can be highlighted.

•

Tackle the obstacles identified in the implementation

of measures, such as administrative capacity and

resources.

Improve river continuity and ecological flows,

including in light of hydropower pressures.

•

(

129

)

Water

scarcity

conditions

Europe,

EEA,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/indicators/use-of-

freshwater-resources-in-europe-1.

(

130

)

Percentage

seasons

with

water

stress,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/maps-and-

charts/percentage-of-seasons-with-water-stress.

EEA,

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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Drinking Water Directive

The recast Drinking Water Directive is now applicable, and

Member States were required to transpose its provisions

into their national legal systems by 12 January 2023. Since

the entry into force of the recast directive, the

Commission has adopted several delegated and

implementing acts establishing (i) a watch list of

substances and compounds of concern for drinking

water (

131

), (ii) a methodology for measuring microplastics

in drinking water (

132

) and (iii) an EU system for testing and

approving materials that will be allowed to be in contact

with drinking water (

133

). Member States will have to take

these various Commission acts into account when

implementing the recast directive.

Finally, the Commission has now received data from

Member States on the quality of drinking water (supplied

by large water suppliers) in 2017–2019. However,

Romania has not yet submitted the related data. From

January 2026, the European quality standards for per- and

polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water will apply,

ensuring harmonised Member States’ reporting of per-

and polyfluoroalkyl substance monitoring data in the

future.

Bathing Water Directive

The Bathing Water Directive requires Member States to

monitor and assess bathing water. It requires that, during

the bathing season, Member States disseminate to the

public information on bathing water quality actively and

promptly. In particular, notices banning or advising against

bathing should be rapidly and easily identifiable

Figure 30 shows that in 2023, out of the 50 Romanian

bathing waters, 35 (70 %) were of excellent quality and 15

(30 %) were of good quality. No bathing waters were

found to be of sufficient or poor quality.

Figure 29: Bathing water quality per Member State,

Albania and Switzerland (%), 2023

Source:

EEA,

European Bathing Water Quality in 2023,

briefing

No 04/2024,

Copenhagen,

2024,

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/european-bathing-water-

quality-in-2023/.

Nitrates Directive

The Nitrates Directive (

134

) aims to protect water quality

across Europe by preventing nitrates from agricultural

sources that can pollute groundwater and surface waters

and by promoting the use of good farming practices.

The latest Commission report on the implementation of

the Nitrates Directive (

135

), dating back to 2021, warns that

nitrates are still causing harmful pollution to water in the

EU. Excessive nitrates in water are harmful to both human

health and ecosystems, causing oxygen depletion and

eutrophication. Cleaning of waters by national authorities

or farmers, where it has been undertaken, has had a

positive impact on the drinking water supply and on

biodiversity. It has also benefited the sectors

–

such as

fisheries and tourism

–

that depend on biodiversity and on

a good supply of drinking water. Nevertheless, excessive

fertilisation remains a problem in many parts of the EU.

The report on the implementation of the Nitrates

Directive covering 2020–2023 will be available in 2025.

The analysis of

Romania’s

RBMPs has identified nutrients

from agriculture as an important pressure for

groundwater / surface waters that is affecting these

(

131

)

(

132

)

(

133

)

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/implementing-

decision-drinking-water-directive-watch-list_en.

Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2024/1441 of 11 March 2024

supplementing Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European

Parliament and of the Council by laying down a methodology to

measure microplastics in water intended for human consumption

(notified under document C(2024) 1459) (OJ L, 2024/1441,

21.5.2024),

http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec_del/2024/1441/oj.

OJ L,

2024/365,

23.4.2024,

http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2024/365/oj;

OJ L, 2024/367,

23.4.2024,

http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2024/367/oj;

OJ L,

2024/369,

23.4.2024,

http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2024/369/oj;

OJ L, 2024/368,

(

134

)

(

135

)

23.4.2024,

http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2024/368/oj;

OJ L,

2024/370,

23.4.2024,

http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2024/370/oj;

OJ L, 2024/371,

23.4.2024,

http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2024/371/oj;

see

the Commission web page on all six delegated acts for more

information

(https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/delegated-acts-

drinking-water-directive_en).

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?qid=1561542776070&uri=CELEX:01991L0676-

20081211.

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/water/nitrates_en.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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waters’

good status and as one of the main factors in not

meeting the Water Framework Directive objectives.

authorities for failure to comply with the UWWTD in

relation to agglomerations of above 10 000 population

equivalent, which benefited from a transitional period in

accordance with Romania’s Treaty of Accession.

Nevertheless, 150 large agglomerations still do not

conform with the urban wastewater collection

obligations, 154 large agglomerations do not comply with

secondary treatment obligations and 154 large

agglomerations do not comply with the tertiary treatment

obligations (

136

The Commission referred Romania to the Court of Justice

of the European Union on 15 November 2024. It is

essential that Romania takes the necessary measures to

fully comply with the requirements of the directive.

This is all the more important as the directive has been

revised in order to, among other things, strengthen

existing treatment standards and establish an additional

treatment of micropollutants in urban waste water. Other

new requirements relate to moving towards the energy

neutrality of the sector, establishing an EPR system to

ensure sustainable financing of micropollutant treatment

by the most polluting industries and ensuring access to

sanitation, especially for vulnerable and marginalised

groups. Romania has until 31 July 2027 to transpose the

new directive into its national legal system.

Romania continues to struggle with incomplete public

water supply connections and still has one of the lowest

compliance rates with EU water legislation. It continues to

be confronted with the highest investment needs to reach

and maintain compliance. Efforts need to be stepped up

to extend and modernise drinking water and wastewater

infrastructure, and to ensure a sustainable service at a

reasonable price. The significant leakage rate of water

supply systems highlights the need for investment in

network infrastructure. The Romanian RRP has identified

some key reforms to support the water sector, notably by

strengthening the regulatory framework for the

sustainable management of the water and wastewater

sectors, and to accelerate public access to quality services.

Significant funding support for water investments is

available in the RRP and under the cohesion policy. In

2021–2027, EUR 1.2 billion in EU cohesion policy supports

investments in wastewater collection and treatment in

projects started in 2014–2020 and in new projects. As a

condition of the support, Romanian authorities developed

a national investment plan to enable the strategic

planning and deployment of these investments. This plan

includes a set of actions which refers to actions to ensure

the institutional framework for the implementation and

monitoring of the investment plan, and to strengthen the

strategic governance of the sector, the economic

regulation of the sector and the capacity of operators,

601.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/inf_22_

2025 priority action

•

Tackle nutrient pollution, especially nitrates from

agriculture through the implementation of the

Nitrates Directive.

Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive

The Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD)

aims to protect human health and the environment from

the effects of untreated urban waste water. It therefore

requires Member States to collect and treat (secondary or

biological treatment) waste water in all urban areas of

more than 2 000 people, and to apply a more stringent

treatment than secondary, with nitrogen and/or

phosphorus removal, to the waste water generated in

urban areas, also known as agglomerations, of more than

10 000 people, before they are discharged into waters and

their catchments, when they are sensitive to nitrogen

and/or phosphorus (i.e. eutrophic or tending to become

eutrophic).

Romania,

agglomerations,

generating

3 052 104 population equivalent of urban waste water,

complied with the requirements of the directive in 2020.

total,

1 777

agglomerations,

generating

16 779 407 population equivalent of urban waste water,

did not comply with the requirements of the directive.

Figure 30: Proportion of urban waste water that fully

complies with the UWWTD (%), 2020

Source:

European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment,

Fribourg-Blanc, B., Dhuygelaere, N., Berland, J. and Imbert, F., 12th

technical assessment of UWWTD implementation

–

Final version,

Publications

Office

the

European

Union,

2024,

https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2779/318637.

Despite improvements in compliance over the years, for

which the use of EU funding has been instrumental, the

Commission sent a reasoned opinion to the Romanian

(

136

)

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including regional ones. The implementation of the

investments and reforms in the plan should be ensured.

Despite some progress having been made since the 2022

EIR, Romania has not completed the implementation of

the UWWTD for all agglomerations. Therefore, further

efforts are necessary.

Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)

Regulation and the Classification, Labelling and Packaging

(CLP) Regulation. In December 2020, the Commission

assessed the Member States’ reports

(

139

)

on the

implementation

and

enforcement

these

140

regulations ( ). It is apparent from the Commission’s

report that there are still many disparities in the

implementation of the REACH and CLP Regulations,

notably in the area of law enforcement. Recorded

compliance levels in Member States, generally quite stable

over time, appear to be getting slightly worse. This may be

because (i) enforcement authorities are becoming more

effective in detecting non-compliant products/companies

and (ii) more non-compliant products are being placed on

the EU market.

In August 2021, the Commission published a measurable

assessment of the enforcement (

141

) of the two main EU

regulations on chemicals using a set of indicators on

different aspects of enforcement. Since 2021, the list of

chemicals subject to restrictions has been expanded as

new entries have been added to Annex XVII to the REACH

Regulation (

142

In 2023, new hazard classes were added to the CLP

Regulation, and the revision of the regulation was tabled

(published on 20 November 2024) (

143

). The new hazard

classes cover endocrine disruptors and persistence-

related hazards while the revision of the regulation

encompasses new rules on online sales to better tackle

non-compliances observed over the years. Also in 2023,

the Conference of the Parties of the Stockholm

Convention (COP) decided to include, in its Annex A (which

2025 priority action

•

Take the necessary measures to ensure full

implementation of the current urban wastewater

treatment directive, taking into account the new

requirements of the recast directive.

Chemicals

The EU seeks to ensure that chemicals are produced and

used in a way that minimises any significant adverse

effects on human health and the environment. In October

2020, the Commission published its chemicals strategy for

sustainability towards a toxic-free environment (

137

which led to some systemic changes in EU chemicals

legislation. The strategy is part of the EU’s zero pollution

ambition

–

a key commitment of the European Green

Deal.

The EU’s chemicals legislation (

138

) provides a baseline

protection for human health and the environment. It also

ensures stability and predictability for businesses

operating in the internal market.

Since 2007, the Commission has gathered information on

the enforcement of the Registration, Evaluation,

(

137

)

(

138

)

Communication from the Commission to the European

Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social

Committee and the Committee of the Regions

–

Chemicals

strategy for sustainability: Towards a toxic-free environment,

COM(2020) 667 final of 14 October 2020,

https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2020%3A667%3AFIN;

Regulation

(EC) No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council

of 16 December 2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of

substances and mixtures, amending and repealing Directives

67/548/EEC and 1999/45/EC, and amending Regulation (EC)

No 1907/2006

(OJ

L 353,

31.12.2008,

p. 1),

https://publications.europa.eu/resource/cellar/c6b6a31d-8359-

11ee-99ba-01aa75ed71a1.0004.02/DOC_2.

Namely, Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European

Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning

the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of

chemicals (REACH), establishing a European Chemicals Agency,

amending Directive 1999/45/EC and repealing Council Regulation

(EEC) No 793/93 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1488/94 as

well as Council Directive 76/769/EEC and Commission Directives

91/155/EEC, 93/67/EEC, 93/105/EC and 2000/21/EC (OJ L 396,

30/12/2006,

p. 1),

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32006R1907;

and Regulation (EC)

No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of

16 December 2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of

substances and mixtures, amending and repealing Directives

67/548/EEC and 1999/45/EC, and amending Regulation (EC)

(

139

)

(

140

)

(

141

)

(

142

)

(

143

)

No 1907/2006 (OJ L 353, 31.12.2008, p. 1),

https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02008R1272-20221217.

European Commission,

Technical assistance to review the existing

Member States reporting questionnaire under Articles 117(1) of

REACH and 46(2) of CLP

–

Final report,

Publications Office of the

European

Union,

Luxembourg,

2020,

https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/8ee3c69a-bccb-4f22-89ca-

277e35de7c63/library/a4abce8c-8425-455f-b7e6-

0ead917bde6b/details.

In line with Article 117(1) of the REACH Regulation and

Article 46(2) of the CLP Regulation.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market,

Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs,

REACH and CLP

Enforcement: EU-level enforcement indicators,

Publications Office

the

European

Union,

Luxembourg,

2021,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/e5c3e461-0f85-11ec-9151-01aa75ed71a1/.

These are substances in tattoo inks and permanent make-up,

N,N-

dimethylformamide, formaldehyde (and formaldehyde releasers),

lead in PVC (polyvinyl chloride), siloxanes (D4, D5, D6) and, finally,

microplastics.

Regulation (EU) 2024/2865 of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 23 October 2024 amending Regulation (EC) No

1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances

and mixtures, OJ L, 2024/2865, 20.11.2024, p.1 (https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/2865/oj/eng).

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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lists banned substances), three new chemicals (

144

). The

Commission is working on the delegated acts to include

these substances in Annex I to the Persistent Organic

Pollutants Regulation by 2025 at the latest.

In Romania, responsibility for checking compliance with

the REACH Regulation lies with the following

authorities (

145

•

National Environmental Guard,

Labour Inspection,

National Consumer Protection Authority

responsible for the CLP Regulation).

Figure 31: Compliance of imported products

–

results of

the REF-8 project (%)

(also

Romania has drawn up but only partially implemented the

REACH and CLP Regulation enforcement strategies (

146

The Member States’ reporting exercise set out in

Article 117 of the REACH Regulation and Article 46 of the

CLP Regulation is conducted every five years. The results

of the coming one are expected in 2025, hence the

absence of new country-specific data on enforcement

since 2022.

In 2020, Romania indicated that 90 staff members are

allocated to the enforcement of the REACH and CLP

Regulations (covering 384 person hours/year), plus 43

labour inspectors (

147

In 2020, Romania participated in an EU coordinated

enforcement project on products sold online, called the

REACH-EN-FORCE (REF)-8 project (

148

). The report was

adopted in November 2021, so it could not be taken into

account in the previous EIR.

A risk approach was used for the targeting of control

measures in order to maximise the chances of identifying

non-compliances. Therefore, the non-compliance rates

presented above cannot be considered the average non-

compliance rates of products in the EU. However, the

proportion of non-compliance cases found in the REF-8

project are of concern.

(

144

)

(

145

)

(

146

)

These are methoxychlor, dechlorane plus and UV-328. In the case

of the pesticide methoxychlor, there are no exemptions from the

ban. However, for the two plastic additives, dechlorane plus and

UV-328, the COP decision lists some time-limited specific

exemptions.

European Commission,

Technical assistance to review the existing

Member States reporting questionnaire under Articles 117(1) of

REACH and 46(2) of CLP

–

Final report,

Publications Office of the

European

Union,

Luxembourg,

2020,

p. 71,

https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/8ee3c69a-bccb-4f22-89ca-

277e35de7c63/library/a4abce8c-8425-455f-b7e6-

0ead917bde6b/details.

European Commission,

Technical assistance to review the existing

Member States reporting questionnaire under Articles 117(1) of

REACH and 46(2) of CLP

–

Final report,

Publications Office of the

European

Union,

Luxembourg,

2020,

p. 76,

(

147

)

(

148

)

https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/8ee3c69a-bccb-4f22-89ca-

277e35de7c63/library/a4abce8c-8425-455f-b7e6-

0ead917bde6b/details.

European Commission,

Technical assistance to review the existing

Member States reporting questionnaire under Articles 117(1) of

REACH and 46(2) of CLP

–

Final report,

Publications Office of the

European

Union,

Luxembourg,

2020,

p. 75,

https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/8ee3c69a-bccb-4f22-89ca-

277e35de7c63/library/a4abce8c-8425-455f-b7e6-

0ead917bde6b/details.

European Chemicals Agency,

REF-8 project on enforcement of the

CLP, REACH and BPR duties related to substances, mixtures and

articles

sold

online,

Helsinki,

2021,

p. 20,

https://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/17088/project_report

_ref-8_en.pdf/ccf2c453-da0e-c185-908e-

3a0343b25802?t=1638885422475.

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Figure 32: Number of REF-8 checks performed per

100 000 inhabitants (EU average = 1.24)

Romania participated to a small extent in the REF-8

coordinated enforcement project. Online sales have been

proved to correspond consistently to higher non-

compliance rates in checks performed across the EU, in

particular when related to imported products.

In 2022, Romania received a priority action related to

upgrading administrative capacities in implementation

and enforcement to move towards a policy of zero

tolerance of non-compliance. In the absence of reporting

since 2022, no progress has been shown and this priority

action remains valid in 2025, partly because of the

experience with the REF-8 project.

In addition, Romania must fully implement the REACH and

CLP Regulation enforcement strategies.

2025 priority actions

•

Upgrade administrative capacities in implementation

and enforcement towards a policy of zero tolerance

of non-compliance.

Increase involvement in the activities of the Forum for

Exchange of Information on Enforcement of the

European Chemicals Agency, including in the

coordinated enforcement projects, called REFs.

Increase customs controls and controls of products

sold online with regard to compliance with chemicals

legislations.

•

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4. Climate action

The impacts of climate change have continued to increase

in recent years, inflicting damage and suffering in the EU

and around the world. Globally, 2023 was the hottest year

on record, while Europe has been warming twice as

quickly as the global average, and is now the fastest-

warming continent. The frequency and severity of

extreme climate events are also increasing. Against this

backdrop, the EU has demonstrated its determination to

implement the European Green Deal and to become

climate neutral and resilient by 2050, ensuring sustainable

competitiveness and supporting EU industry in the net-

zero transition. The European Climate Law is the EU’s

response to the need for action. It sets the objective of

achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and a midterm target

of a reduction in GHG emissions of at least 55 % by 2030,

and outlines the adaptation efforts necessary to adjust to

climate change’s present and future impacts. Almost all

the

‘Fit

for 55’ proposals set out in the European Green

Deal have been agreed in law, and the European

Commission recommended a new intermediate climate

target of a 90 % reduction in emissions by 2040. In 2024,

the Member States submitted updated national energy

and climate plans for 2021–2030, reflecting the increased

ambition of the revised EU legislation. In 2024, the

European Commission also released, jointly with the EEA,

the first-ever European climate risk assessment.

Over the last three decades, since 1990, the EU has

achieved steady decreases in its emissions, reaching a

running total in 2022 of

–

32.5 % (

149

). However, the EU

and its Member States need to step up their

implementation efforts and accelerate emissions

reduction to stay on track to reach their targets of a 55 %

reduction in net GHG emissions by 2030 and climate

neutrality by 2050. Between 1990 and 2022, net GHG

emissions of Romania decreased by 73%, making it one of

the countries with an above-average decrease.

The

‘Fit

for 55’ legislative package reflects the need to

speed up the green transition. It includes (i) strengthening

and expanding the EU emissions trading system (ETS), with

the creation of a new, second, ETS for transport and

buildings together with a dedicated Social Climate Fund to

help citizens during the transition; (ii) increasing targets

under the effort sharing regulation; and (iii) a revised

regulation for Land Use, Land Use Change and

Forestry (

150

). The package has been fully adopted, and the

Member States have been implementing the legislation.

The key strategic document at country level is the national

energy and climate plan (NECP) (

151

). Romania submitted

its updated plan in October 2024 after the deadline set by

the Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union

and Climate Action (

152

). The European Commission

assessed the plan and the extent to which Romania has

followed the recommendations for the draft version. The

findings from the assessment are:

•

Emissions under the Effort Sharing Regulation will

decrease by 15% in 2030 compared to 2005, and

Romania will meet its target of 13%.

The latest projections show a gap to the Land Use,

Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation

target, meaning that current levels of removals have

been insufficient.

Romania has a gap to its target for the share of

renewable energy.

Romania is in line with its energy efficiency targets.

•

To minimise the impacts of climate policies on vulnerable

people and sectors, Romania is using the Just Transition

Fund and Modernisation Fund and will use Social Climate

Fund from 2026 (for more information, see Chapter 5

Finance).

Figure 33: Total GHG emissions (excluding international

aviation) (%), 1990–2022

(

149

)

(

150

)

EU net domestic emissions, including the land use, land-use

change and forestry (LULUCF) sector and excluding international

aviation.

A full overview of the Fit for 55 package is available at

https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-

2019-2024/european-green-deal/delivering-european-green-

deal/fit-55-delivering-proposals_en.

( ) More information about NECP is on the dedicated website

https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/energy-strategy/national-

energy-and-climate-plans-necps_en.

152

à Article 14 of regulation 2018/1999 on the Governance of the

(

Energy Union and Climate Action.

151

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The EU emissions trading system

The EU ETS is the key tool for reducing GHG emissions

cost-effectively across all Member States. It is the world’s

biggest carbon market, covering around 40% of the EU’s

total GHG emissions from electricity and heat generation,

the manufacturing industry, aviation within Europe (

153

)

and, from 2024, maritime transport also.

The system sets a limit or cap on the total amount of GHGs

that can be emitted at the EU level. Within this limit,

companies buy emissions allowances (one allowance gives

the right to emit 1 t of CO

eq (carbon dioxide equivalent)),

in auctions or through trading allowances with others. The

cap is reduced annually to ensure that overall emissions in

the sectors covered decrease over time.

The emissions under the ETS decreased by 66% from 2005

to 2023.

In 2023, 54 % of GHG emissions from Romania’s ETS

installations came from power generation, slightly below

the EU average (57 %). Cement and lime accounted for

about 24 %, the metals industry for 8 %, and refineries and

other industries for 7 %, each. Between 2019 and 2023,

the industry sectors registered a higher reduction (37 %)

than power generation (33 %), resulting in a 35 % overall

emissions decrease. Since 2013, GHG emissions from

power generation have declined by half. Although ETS

emissions from the

‘other’

sectoral category have

decreased by 30 %, emissions from the metals industry

have increased by 59 %, and emissions from cement and

lime have grown by 24 %. This has resulted in an overall

GHG reduction of 44 % since 2013.

On 25 January 2024, the Commission started an

infringement case against Romania for failing to fully

transpose previous revisions of ETS directive (

154

) into

national law. Romania had two months to respond and

address the shortcomings raised by the Commission. In

the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission

may decide to take the infringement case further.

From 2027, a new emissions trading system, called ETS2,

for buildings, road transport and additional sectors

(mainly industry not covered by the current ETS) will

become fully operational (

155

). Member States should

have notified full transposition the provisions of the

revised EU ETS directive related to the new ETS2 into

national law by 30 June 2024. Romania did not

communicate full transposition into national law by this

deadline. For this reason, on 25 July 2024, the Commission

opened an infringement procedure against Romania.

Romania had two months to respond and address the

shortcomings raised by the Commission. In the absence of

a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to

take the infringement case further.

Effort sharing

The Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) (

156

) covers GHG

emissions from domestic transport (excluding CO₂

emissions from aviation), buildings, agriculture, small

industry and waste. Emissions from these sectors account

for around 60 % of the EU’s domestic emissions. The

regulation sets the EU-wide target to reduce emissions

from the effort sharing sectors by 40 % by 2030 compared

to 2005 levels. This overall target for the EU translates to

binding national emission reduction targets for each

Member State. Romania‘s target is

–12.7%.

In addition to the 2030 targets, Member States have

annual GHG emissions limits (annual emission allocations),

reducing every year until 2030.

There is some flexibility to take account of annual

fluctuations in emissions, by trading emissions and

transfers from the ETS and LULUCF.

Based on historical emissions and the most updated

projections Romania is on track to achieve its 2030 ESR

target.

Projected emission reduction is 2.6 percentage points

above the 2030 target.

Romania is one of the few countries where domestic

transport is not a dominant effort sharing sector.

Transport accounted for 26 % of all effort sharing

emissions in 2022, but the share is on rise. Domestic

transport emissions increased by 68 % from 2005 level. In

Romania, much remains to be done in the sector,

especially for passenger transport. Only 0.3 % of car fleet

were battery electric vehicles in 2023 (EU average is 1.2 %)

and Romania has about 2 660 publicly accessible charging

points, or one for every 12 e-vehicles (above the EU

average of 1:10). The total share of public transportation

is above the EU average but share of railways (3 %) is

considerably lower than the average (6 %). On the

transport of freight, inland waterways and rail each

account for 25 % of movements. However, only 37 % of

Romania’s rail network is electrified (well below the EU

average of 56 %).

Between 2005 and 2022, emissions from buildings

increased by 7 %, which is not in line with EU trend and EU

average decrease of 29 % in the same period. Romania is

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32023L0958).

Directive (EU) 2023/959 (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2023.130.01.0134.01.ENG).

Regulation (EU) 2018/842 (https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2018/842).

(

153

)

(

154

)

Flights between the EU Member States including departing flights

to Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Directive (EU) 2023/959 (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32023L0959)

and Directive (EU)

2023/958

(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

(

155

)

(

156

)

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expected to continue improving the energy efficiency of

its buildings sector. For example, residential final energy

consumption decreased by 2 % in 2022 compared to 2021,

continuing its decrease since 2019, but was still above

2015–2017 levels. The share of renewable energy in

heating and cooling was at the same level as in 2013.

The most important effort sharing sector is a small

industry accounted for 29 % emissions.

Figure 34: Effort-sharing emissions by sector (%), 2022

to climate change is also a key component of climate

policy.

Romania has one out of three regions identified as a

hotspots of climate risks most affected by climate

change

–low-lying

coastal regions (

157

Romania is vulnerable to extreme events related to

climate change, such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves.

Agriculture is particularly affected. Romania has a

pronounced insurance gap for flooding. Indeed, all

climate-related hazards have an insurance penetration

below 50 %. Data from 1980–2020 show that only 5 % of

economic losses were insured.

Romania adopted its national adaptation strategy in 2013

and updated it together with adaptation plan in 2016.

There are no regional or sectoral adaptation plans.

Appropriate institutional mechanisms are crucial for

climate adaptation. In this regard, Romania has

weaknesses in the monitoring and evaluation of

adaptation policies, the analysis of climate vulnerabilities

and risks, coordination across sectors of government, and

adaptation action at local level. Moreover, there is

considerable scope for integrating nature-based solutions

into adaptation plans.

Romania received six priority actions regarding climate

action in the 2022 EIR. The progress in the transport sector

is limited and emissions are increasing. Romania

overachieved in relation to its 2020 energy efficiency

targets, but additional measures are needed for it to reach

its 2030 targets. Biomass sustainability criteria are not

explicitly mentioned in reported measures. The share of

renewable energy has been stagnant since 2014 and there

is scope for increasing Romania’s target for renewable

energy. Since 2022, Romania has adopted six territorial

just transition plans for the regions that face the biggest

socioeconomic challenges in phasing out coal and

reducing CO

emissions. Progress on the implementation

of these plans is limited, including in transformational

investments in the high emission sectors, such as steel

industry.

Land use, land-use change and forestry

The Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF)

sector plays a significant role in achieving the EU’s climate

neutrality goal. In the EU, this sector absorbs more GHGs

than it emits, removing significant volumes of carbon from

the atmosphere. Thus, it is the only sector with negative

emissions.

Recent trends show that LULUCF removals are slowly

decreasing since 2020 in Romania.

Romania‘s target in 2030 is to enhance land removals by

additional

−2.4

Mt of CO

equivalent compared to the

yearly average of the period 2016–2018. The latest

projections show a gap to target of 2.0 Mt of CO

equivalent in 2030. Therefore, Romania needs to apply

additional measures to reach its 2030 target.

2025 priority actions

•

Implement all policies and measures that are needed

to achieve targets laid down in the Effort Sharing

Regulation (ESR) and the Land Use and Land-Use

Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation. More

detailed priority actions are set out in the assessment

of the final National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP)

(

158

Adaptation to climate change

Halting all GHG emissions would still not prevent climate

impacts that are already occurring. Therefore, adaptation

(

157

)

European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA). 2024. Available at

https://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/en/eu-adaptation-

(

158

)

policy/key-eu-actions/european-climate-risk-assessment.

National energy and climate plans.

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Part II: Enabling framework

–

implementation tools

5. Financing

The EU budget supports climate investment in Romania

with significant amounts in 2021–2027, with revenues

from the ETS also feeding into the national budget. During

2020–2022, Romania’s revenues from auctioning reached

EUR 1.775 billion in total, with 40 % of it spent on climate

and energy.

In addition, the annual investment needed to meet its

environmental objectives in the areas of pollution

prevention and control, the circular economy and waste,

water protection and management, and biodiversity and

ecosystems is estimated to be around EUR 9.7 billion per

year in Romania.

These four environmental areas currently receive total

funding of around EUR 4.3 billion per year; thus, there is a

gap of around EUR 5.4 billion per year.

Of the annual environmental investment gap,

EUR 3 billion concerns biodiversity and ecosystems,

EUR 0.8 billion pollution prevention and control,

EUR 1.1 billion the water objective and around

EUR 0.5 billion the circular economy.

The RRF contributes to climate finance in Romania with

EUR 12.6 billion up to 2026, representing 44.1 % of the

RRP (

161

The European Investment Bank (EIB) provided

EUR 109.9 billion financing across the EU-27 between

2021 and mid 2024 to support energy, transport and

industry projects that are aligned with the EU’s climate

objectives. Of this amount, EUR 2.1 billion was assigned to

Romania in the reference period (

162

National financing, including EU emissions trading

system revenues

Revenues from the auctioning of emission allowances

under the EU ETS, which feed directly into national

budgets, amounted to EUR 803 million in 2020,

EUR 484 million in 2021 and EUR 488 million in 2022 in

Romania, totalling EUR1.775 billion in the three-year

period. In Romania, 50 % of the revenues are earmarked

for climate and energy purposes and an additional 6 % is

earmarked for GHG reduction projects (and 15 % goes to

indirect carbon cost compensation and 29 % to the

general budget). Part of the unspent revenues is carried

over to later years.

From the remaining part of the EU ETS revenues that feed

into the Innovation Fund and the Modernisation Fund,

further support is available to climate action at the EU

level (

163

It should be noted that investment in climate action also

supports the environment and, therefore, the

environmental investments described in the following

sections cannot be regarded as entirely additional to

climate investment (

164

Climate finance landmarks

EU funding for climate action

The EU budget supports climate action in the EU-27 with

EUR 657.8 billion in the 2021–2027 budgetary period

across the various programmes and funds, representing

an overall 34.3 % contribution level. Of this, cohesion

policy provides EUR 120 billion (over half of it through the

European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)), the RRF

EUR 275.7 billion and CAP EUR 145.9 billion (

159

In Romania, EU cohesion policy (considering the EU

contribution amount) provides EUR 9.2 billion for climate

action in 2021–2027 (with more than half of this via the

ERDF), with a further EUR 70.5 million from the European

Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) (

160

Environmental financing and investments

This section describes Romania’s investment needs,

current financing and gaps as they relate to the four

environmental objectives beyond climate objectives,

namely tackling pollution, the circular economy and

(

159

)

(

160

)

(

161

)

European Commission,

Statement of Estimates of the European

Commission

–

For the financial year 2025,

Publications Office of

the European Union, Luxembourg, 2024, pp. 94–96,

https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/7a0420e1-

599e-4246-9131-ccb7d505d6d9_en?filename=DB2025-

Statement-of-Estimates_1.pdf.

See

the

Cohesion

Open

Data

Platform

(https://cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu/).

European Commission datasets and the Recovery and Resilience

Scoreboard (https://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/recovery-

(

162

)

(

163

)

(

164

)

and-resilience-scoreboard/index.html).

A list of financed projects is provided by the EIB

(https://www.eib.org/en/projects/loans/index.htm).

European Commission: Directorate-General for Climate Action,

Progress Report 2023

–

Climate action,

Publications Office of the

European

Union,

Luxembourg,

2023,

https://climate.ec.europa.eu/news-your-voice/news/climate-

action-progress-report-2023-2023-10-24_en.

NB: Indirect investments (from climate and other policies) in

support of the environment are accounted for via the tracking.

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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Romania 46

(

)

European Commission, 2021-2027 cohesion policy (planned)

allocations in

EU amount

excluding national co-financing, based on

the tracking in the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR, 2021)

Annex I. Please note potential data changes that may have arisen

between the EIR preparation cut-off date (31 October 2024) and

its publication date. Source and

further information:

https://cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu/2021-2027-

Categorisation/2021-2027-Planned-finances-detailed-

categorisation/hgyj-gyin/about_data

Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 2 December 2021 establishing rules on support for

strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the

common agricultural policy (CAP strategic plans) and financed by

the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and by the

European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and

repealing Regulations (EU) No 1305/2013 and (EU) No 1307/2013

(OJ

L 435

6.12.2021,

p. 1),

Annex XI,

https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2021/2115.

Note that 2021-2027 combines factual data for 2021 and 2022 and

expenditure under the relevant specific objectives (SOs) of the

CAP strategic plans from 2023, using the EU biodiversity tracking

methodology (https://commission.europa.eu/system/files/2023-

06/Biodiversity%20tracking%20methodology%20for%20each%20

programme%202023.pdf). Source: European Commission.

(

)

(

)

Space Fund, Horizon Europe, the LIFE programme and the

Connecting Europe Facility.

Outside the MFF. Note that the RRF applies a similar

environmental tracking scheme (set in the RRF Regulation, Annex

VI) as the EU’s cohesion policy. RR dataset version used: July

2024, prior to 2025 revisions. Data source: European Commission.

waste, water protection and

biodiversity and ecosystems (

165

The environment overall

Investment needs

management,

and

The overall environmental investment needs to be

sufficient to enable Romania to meet its objectives in the

areas of pollution prevention and control, the circular

economy and waste, water protection and management,

and biodiversity and ecosystems. The required investment

is estimated to be EUR 9.7 billion per year (in 2022 prices).

A significant part of the estimated requirement, around

EUR 3.8 billion per year, can be attributed to the need to

support biodiversity and ecosystems, and EUR 2.1 billion

per year is needed for pollution prevention and control.

For water and the circular economy, the investment need

is around EUR 1.9 billion per year each (in 2022 prices).

Current investments

To implement the environmental investments needed, the

available financing is estimated to currently reach an

annual EUR 4.3 billion in Romania from EU and national

sources combined (in 2022 prices).

Total environmental funding from the multiannual

financial framework (MFF) is estimated to reach around

EUR 10.8 billion for Romania in total, during 2021–2027

(or around EUR 1.5 billion per year).

Table 1: Key environmental allocations from EU funds to

Romania (million EUR), 2021–2027

Instrument

Cohesion policy

ERDF

Cohesion Fund

Just Transition Fund

CAP

European

Agricultural

Guarantee Fund

European Agricultural Fund

for Rural Development

EMFAF

Other MFF

RRF

(

) (2021–2026)

Allocations

6 459.3

(

)

5 023.0

1 067.3

369.1

3 623.1

(

)

2 336.9

1 286.2

(

)

Romania, in addition to receiving EU funds earmarked

specifically for it in 2021–2027, can also benefit from

funding programmes that can be accessed at the EU level

and which are open to all Member States. These include

the LIFE programme (EUR 5.4 billion) (

166

), Horizon Europe

(EUR 95.5 billion) (

167

), the Connecting Europe Facility

(EUR 33.7 billion) (

168

) and funds that can be mobilised

through the InvestEU programme (

169

Romania’s RRP supports climate objectives through

funding of EUR 12.6 billion (44 % of total), with an

additional EUR 1.99 billion (7 % of total) for the

environment.

The EU’s cohesion policy provides EUR 9.2 billion for

climate action in 2021–2027 (support for the environment

from cohesion policy is EUR 6.68 billion).

The EIB provided around EUR 1 021.9 million in

environment-related financial contributions to Romania

from 2021 to mid-2024, most of which, EUR 180.8 million

(77 %), was in the area of sustainable energy, transport

(

168

)

The Connecting Europe Facility Transport part also includes

EUR 11.3 billion transferred from the Cohesion Fund, of which

30 % will be made available, on a competitive basis, to all Member

States eligible for the Cohesion Fund. The remaining 70 % will

respect the national envelopes until 31 December 2023.

The InvestEU Fund is set to mobilise over EUR 372 billion of

investment through an EU budget guarantee of EUR 26.2 billion to

back the investment of financial partners such as the EIB group

and others.

45.6

667.5

(

)

7 455

(

165

)

(

166

)

(

167

)

Research, development and innovation is accounted for under

each environmental objective. The financing needs, baselines and

gaps estimates are based on the Directorate-General for

Environment’s internal analysis (of 2024). Throughout this

chapter, specific references are provided to the most important

data sources used.

https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/programmes/life_en.

European Commission, Horizon Europe,

https://research-and-

innovation.ec.europa.eu/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-

programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-europe_en.

(

169

)

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and industrial projects, which provides significant co-

benefits to reducing air pollution, environmental noise

and other pollution.

The EU’s total national expenditure on environmental

protection (operating plus capital expenditure) was

EUR 298 billion in 2020 and EUR 321 billion in 2021,

representing around 2.2 % of EU-27 GDP. In Romania, the

total national environmental protection expenditure was

EUR 5.2 billion in 2020 and EUR 5.7 billion in 2021,

representing 2.4 % of GDP.

Of the total environmental expenditure, the national

capital expenditure (investment) on environmental

protection amounted to EUR 54.5 billion in 2020 and

EUR 59.9 billion in 2021 in the EU-27, representing around

0.4 % of the EU’s GDP. In Romania, the national

environmental

protection

investment

reached

EUR 671 million in 2020, rising to EUR 728 million in 2021,

and to EUR 820 million in 2022, representing around 0.3 %

of GDP.

Splitting by institutional sector, 63 % of Romania’s

national environmental protection investment (capital

expenditure) comes from the general government budget,

with 15 % coming from specialist private-sector producers

(of environmental protection services, such as waste and

water companies) and 22 % from the business sector,

whose environmental activities are usually ancillary to its

main activities. At the EU level, 38 % of environmental

protection investment comes from governments, 40 %

from specialist private-sector producers and 22 % from

the general business sector (

170

Romania’s total financing for environmental investment

reaches an estimated EUR 4.3 billion per year (in 2022

prices), including EU funding and national public and

national private expenditure. Of the total, the share of EU

funds (including EIB funds) reaches 60 %, with around

40 % national financing. The total public financing (EU plus

national public) represents 85 % of the total.

The gap

To meet its four environmental objectives beyond climate

change, the additional investment need over the current

levels (i.e. the gap) reaches an estimated EUR 5.4 billion

per year in Romania, representing around 1.9 % of

national GDP, being significantly higher than the EU

average (0.77 %).

Figure 35: Environmental financing, needs and gaps per

Member State (% of GDP)

Source:

Analysis of Directorate-General for Environment.

The following table provides the distributions of

Romania’s environmental investment gap (expressed in

various forms) by environmental objective.

Table 2: Summary of environmental investment gaps in

Romania per year, 2021–2027

Environmental

objective

Investment gap per year

Million

EUR

(2022

prices)

805

534

% of

total

% of GDP

Pollution prevention

and control

Circular economy and

waste

Water management

and water industries

Biodiversity and

ecosystems

Total

14.8

9.8

0.3

0.2

1 107

20.3

0.4

2 997

5 443

55.1

100.0

1.1

1.9

Source:

Directorate-General for Environment analysis.

Pollution prevention and control

Investment needs

In pollution prevention and control, Romania’s investment

needs are estimated to reach EUR 2.1 billion per year (in

2022 prices) (including baseline investments) in 2021–

2027. Most of this, EUR 1.9 billion, relates to air pollution

control, to comply with the clean air requirements for the

env_ac_epea.

(

170

)

Eurostat,

‘Environmental

protection expenditure accounts’,

2025 Environmental Implementation Review

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five main air pollutants under the NECD by 2030. The

estimated needs to reduce environmental noise reach

EUR 0.4 billion per year, most of which is delivered by the

(same) sustainable energy and transport investments that

also benefit clean air (

171

). Protection from radiation costs

EUR 138 million per year, and industrial site remediation

an estimated EUR 52 million per year. Microplastics

pollution and the chemicals strategy require around

EUR 30–40 million per year (each) (

172

Current investments

The current investment levels supporting pollution

prevention and control reach an estimated EUR 1.3 billion

per year (in 2022 prices) in Romania in 2021–2027. Most

of the financing concerns clean air (EUR 1.2 billion per

year). Protection from environmental noise receives

around EUR 0.6 billion per year, with a further

EUR 47 million for site remediation.

In Romania, the EU MFF provides an estimated 30 % of the

clean air financing (mostly via cohesion policy), with a

further 53 % from the RRF, adding up to around 83 % of

the total. EIB financing contributes 8 % and national

sources reach 9 % (

173

The gap

To meet its environmental objectives concerning pollution

prevention and control (towards zero pollution), Romania

needs to provide an additional EUR 805 million per year

(0.28 % of GDP), mostly related to clean air and noise. The

adequate implementation of the NECP with the

investments included for sustainable energy and transport

would largely deliver this, while in many Member States

additional measures and investments may be required to

comply with the ammonia reduction requirements.

According to the latest (2023) NAPCP review report (

174

Romania complied with ammonia reduction requirements

in 2020 and 2021, but missed those for other pollutants,

namely NO

, NMVOC and PM

2.5

, and it remains at high risk

(

171

)

2021

Phenomena

project

assessment

(https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/f4cd7465-a95d-11eb-9585-01aa75ed71a1)

and the

Commission’s

2023

Environmental

Noise

Directive

implementation

report

(https://environment.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-

03/COM_2023_139_1_EN_ACT_part1_v3.pdf.

European Commission,

Third Clean Air Outlook,

Brussels, 2022,

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/air/clean-air-

outlook_en.

See also the impact assessment for the revision of the

AAQD, available from the Commission web page on the proposed

revision

(https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/revision-eu-

ambient-air-quality-legislation_en).

Through the tracking of EU funds, EIB projects and national

expenditure (environmental protection expenditure accounts

(EPEAs), Eurostat). Note that the bulk of clean air financing is

provided as a contribution from climate (energy and transport)

measures, as per the tracking schemes in the Common Provisions

Regulation Annex I and the RRF Regulation Annex VI. Further

of breaching the NECD 2030 emission reduction

commitments on those air pollutants, based on the

policies and measures in its NAPCP, which takes into

account climate, energy and CAP plans and financing

baselines.

Circular economy and waste

Investment needs

Romania’s investment needs in the circular economy and

waste reach EUR 1.9 billion per year (in 2022 prices)

(including baseline investments). Most of this, around

EUR 1.5 billion per year, relates to circular economy

measures in the mobility, food and built environment

systems, with a further EUR 0.4 billion necessary for waste

management (municipal and packaging waste), covering

waste collection, biowaste treatment, recycling

reprocessors, waste-sorting facilities and digitalisation of

the waste registry. The amount for waste excludes the

investments needed for the uptake of circularity and

waste prevention across the economy (

175

Current investments

Circular economy investments across the economy reach

around EUR 1.1 billion per year (in 2022 prices) in Romania

in 2021–2027, with a further EUR 0.3 billion provided for

waste management that does not constitute circular

economy.

Around 2.9 % of this combined financing for circularity and

waste comes from the EU MFF, with a further 10.7 %

contribution from the RRF, coming to 13.7 % combined.

EIB loans identified in support of circularity and waste

represent 1.6 % of the total. The share of national sources

is overwhelming, reaching 85 % of the total financing (

176

The gap

To meet its environmental objectives concerning the

circular economy and waste, Romania needs to increase

information

clean

air

tracking:

https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/0a80484e-

2409-4749-94c6-

3b23bc6bae8f_en?filename=Clean%20air%20methodology_0.pdf

European Commission,

‘National air pollution control programmes

and

projections’,

European

Commission

website,

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/air/reducing-

emissions-air-pollutants/national-air-pollution-control-

programmes-and-projections_en.

See Systemiq and Ellen MacArthur Foundation,

Achieving ‘Growth

Within’,

2017; and European Commission: Directorate-General for

Environment,

Study on investment needs in the waste sector and

on the financing of municipal waste management in Member

States,

Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg,

2019,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/4d5f8355-bcad-11e9-9d01-01aa75ed71a1

Waste management and circular economy expenditure tracking in

EU funds, EIB projects and national expenditure (Eurostat).

Datasets: EPEAs (env_epi) and circular economy private

investments (cei_cie012).

(

174

)

(

172

)

(

175

)

(

173

)

(

176

)

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circular economy investments by an estimated

EUR 426 million per year, with an additional

EUR 108 million concerning waste management action,

not belonging to circular economy. Combined, this

amounts to EUR 534 million per year, representing 0.19 %

of Romania’s GDP.

Of the circular economy gap, EUR 112 million relates to

recent initiatives, such as eco-design for sustainable

products, packaging and packaging waste, labelling and

digital tools, CRM recycling and measures proposed under

the amendment of the Waste Framework Directive, and

EUR 314 million constitutes further investment needed to

unlock Romania’s circular economy potential.

Water protection and management

Investment needs

The annual water investment needs reach an estimated

EUR 1.925 billion (in 2022 prices) in Romania. This

comprises investment needs both for the water industry

and for the protection and management of water. Of the

total annual need, EUR 816 million relates to the

management of waste water (including additional costs

associated with the revised UWWTD), a further

EUR 189 million is necessary for drinking-water-related

investments and around EUR 915 million for the

protection and management of water (

177

Current investments

Water investments in Romania are estimated to be around

EUR 818 million per year (in 2022 prices) in 2021–2027. Of

this, EUR 534 million supports wastewater management,

EUR 145 million

drinking

water

and

around

EUR 136 million the other aspects of the Water

Framework Directive (water management and

protection).

Of the total financing, 40.8 % is provided by the EU MFF

(mostly through cohesion policy), with a further 8 % from

the RRF, reaching 48.8 % combined. EIB financing is

around 1.2 % of the total, while the bulk of financing

comes from national sources (50 %) (

178

The gap

To meet the various environmental targets under the

Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive,

Romania’s water investment gap reaches EUR 1.1 billion

per year (0.4 % of GDP), with EUR 282 million linked to

wastewater measures. Drinking water measures require

an additional EUR 44 million per year and the other

aspects of the Water Framework Directive around

EUR 779 million per year over the existing levels of

financing.

Biodiversity and ecosystems

Investment needs

The investment needs for biodiversity and ecosystems are

estimated to be EUR 3.7 billion per year (in 2022 prices) in

Romania in 2021–2027. This includes the following

financing needs:

•

Romania’s PAF (

179

), concerning the Natura 2000

areas: EUR 544 million per year, mostly running costs;

additional BDS costs (

180

): EUR 2.2 billion per year on

top of the PAF;

sustainable

soil

management

costs (

181

EUR 983 million per year.

Current investments

The current level of biodiversity financing is estimated to

be EUR 755 million per year (in 2022 prices) in 2021–2027.

62.1 % of the financing is considered direct financing to

biodiversity and ecosystems, with a 100 % coefficient in

the tracking schemes.

15.2 % of the total financing is estimated to come from EU

cohesion policy, 70.4 % from CAP, 6.1 % from Horizon

Europe, around 2.4 % from LIFE and 0.6 % from EMFAF.

The EU MFF altogether accounts for 89.2 % of the

financing, and the RRF for 10.7 %, adding up to a total of

99.9 % from the EU budget. The rest, 0.01 %, comes from

national sources (

182

biodiversity/natura-2000/financing-natura-2000_en.

See European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment,

Biodiversity Financing and Tracking

–

Final report,

Publications

Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2022,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/793eb6ec-dbd6-11ec-a534-

01aa75ed71a1/language-en.

See Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the

Council on soil monitoring and resilience (Soil Monitoring Law)

COM(2023) 416

final

5 July

2023,

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/proposal-

directive-soil-monitoring-and-resilience_en.

Based on biodiversity tracking in the EU budget

(https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/3f466d71-92a7-49eb-9c63-

(

177

)

(

178

)

(

179

)

See European

Commission, ‘Estimating investment needs and

financing capacities for water-related investment in EU Member

States’,

May

2020,

https://commission.europa.eu/news/estimating-investment-

needs-and-financing-capacities-water-related-investment-eu-

member-states-2020-05-28_en;

and OECD,

Financing Water

Supply, Sanitation and flood Protection: Challenges in EU Member

States and policy options,

OECD Publishing, Paris, 2020,

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/environment/financing-water-

supply-sanitation-and-flood-protection_6893cdac-en.

Water investment levels are estimated through tracking EU funds,

EIB projects and national expenditure (EPEAs, Eurostat).

European Commission, ‘ inancing Natura 2000 –

Prioritised action

frameworks’,

European

Commission

website,

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/nature-and-

(

180

)

(

181

)

(

182

)

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At 2.1 %, Romania’s

share of RR funding is above the

average share dedicated to supporting measures for

biodiversity. However, Romania has programmed to

spend 18.1 % of its CAP budget on measures supporting

biodiversity over 2021–2027, which is somewhat below

the EU average. Lastly, 5.5 % of its cohesion policy EU

contribution amount is estimated to contribute to

biodiversity, disregarding ESF+, slightly under the EU

average (see Figure 36).

Figure 36: 2021–2027 contributions to biodiversity from

the main EU instruments per Member State (% of policy

total)

The Commission has developed a non-mandatory green

budgeting reference framework that brings together

methodologies for assessing the impacts of budgets on

climate and environmental goals (

184

To help Member States to develop national green

budgeting and thereby improve policy coherence and

support the green transition, the Commission facilitated a

TSI project on green budgeting from 2021 to 2024 (

185

Romania participated, drawing on the experience of other

Member States to develop and test green budgeting.

Romania has also been selected for the next round of TSI

projects on green budgeting, starting in 2025. The country

will prioritize deepening its green tagging methodology,

developing a framework for ex-ante impact assessments

and building capacity, amongst other things.

Beyond green budgeting, to improve policy outcomes, the

Commission has also drawn up climate-proofing and

sustainability-proofing guidance (

186

) as tools to assess

project eligibility and compliance with environmental

legislation and criteria.

Green taxation and tax reform

Total environmental taxes amounted to EUR 7.7 billion in

Romania in 2022, representing 2.7 % of its GDP (EU

average: 2.0 %). Energy taxes formed the largest

component of environmental taxes, accounting for 2.6 %

of GDP, which is lower than the EU average of 1.6 %.

Transport taxes, at 0.1 % of GDP, were under the EU

average (0.4 %), while data on taxes on pollution and

resources were not available. In 2022, environmental

taxes in Romania accounted for 10.1 % of total revenues

NB: ESF+, European Social Fund Plus.

The gap

To meet the environmental objectives concerning the

protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems

and other relevant cross-cutting measures, Romania’s

investment gap is estimated to be around EUR 3 billion per

year, corresponding to 1.05 % of its GDP.

Public financial management

Green budgeting practices

Green budgeting refers to the use of budgetary tools to

achieve climate and environmental goals. Some Member

States already use green budgeting tools for identifying

and tracking green expenditures and/or revenues (

183

Green budgeting practices provide increased transparency

on the environmental implications of budgetary policies.

(

183

)

(

184

)

6cb0fadf29dc/library/8e44293a-d97f-496d-8769-50365780acde),

and national expenditure into biodiversity from the Classification

of the Functions of Government accounts.

European Commission,

Green Budgeting in the EU. Key Insights

from the 2023 European Commission Survey of Green Budgeting

Practices,

2023,

https://economy-

finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-and-fiscal-governance/national-

fiscal-frameworks-eu-member-states/green-budgeting-

eu_en#:~:text=European%20Commission%20Green%20Budgetin

g%20Survey%C2%A0.

European Commission, ‘European Union green budgeting

(

185

)

(

186

)

reference

framework’,

2022,

https://economy-

finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-and-fiscal-governance/green-

budgeting-eu_en.

https://reform-support.ec.europa.eu/what-we-do/revenue-

administration-and-public-financial-management/supporting-

implementation-green-budgeting-practices-eu_en.

Commission notice

–

Technical guidance on the climate proofing

of infrastructure in the period 2021–2027 (OJ C 373, 16.09.2021,

p. 1),

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/23a24b21-16d0-11ec-b4fe-

01aa75ed71a1/language-en.

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from taxes and social security contributions (well above

the EU average of 5.0 %) (

187

Figure 37: Environmental taxes per Member State, 2022

issuance in 2023

(EUR 0.8 billion).

amounted

USD 885 million

During 2014–2023, 83 % of the green bonds issued by

European countries (excluding supranational entities)

served objectives in energy, buildings or transport, while

5 % supported objectives in water, 5.1 % related to land

use (with links to nature and ecosystems) and 3.8 %

applied to waste management. By 2023, the combined

share of energy, buildings and transport had decreased to

73 %, the shares of waste management and land use had

increased (to 5.9 % and 8.4 %, respectively) and the share

of water remained around 5 %.

In 2021–2023, 31.7 % of the European green bonds

(excluding those issued by supranational bodies) were

issued by financial corporates, 29.1 % by sovereign

governments and 23.1 % by non-financial corporates.

8.3 % of the issuances were linked to government-backed

entities, 6.4 % to development banks and 1.4 % to local

governments.

Figure 38: Value of green bonds issued per Member State

(billion EUR), 2021, 2022 and 2023

The EU Green Deal emphasises the role of well-designed

tax reforms (e.g. shifts from taxing labour to taxing

pollution) to boost economic growth and resilience, and to

foster a fairer society and a just transition through the

right price signals. The Green Deal promotes the

‘polluter-

pays principle’, which makes polluters bear the costs to

prevent, control and remedy pollution.

According to a 2024 study (

188

), Romania applies emission

charges (mainly relating to air and water quality), as well

as user charges (for hunting and fishing and for mineral

extraction, and a volumetric charge for water abstraction

and disposal). The same study proposes the introduction

of pay-as-you-throw and wastewater pollution taxes (

189

Green bonds and sustainable bonds

In 2023, the total value of green bonds issued by Member

States was USD 245 billion (EUR 227 billion), up from

USD 234 billion (EUR 198 billion) in 2021 (

190

During 2021–2023 combined, Romania issued green

bonds worth USD 1.2 billion (EUR 1 billion). Of this, the

Data source: Climatebonds.net, with some additional data from national

sources (e.g. Croatia, Slovenia).

(

187

)

(

188

)

(

189

)

Eurostat, ‘Environmental

taxes accounts’, env_eta.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment,

Candidates for Taxing Environmental Bads at National Level,

Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2024,

Annex 1,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/35c1bbdf-2931-11ef-9290-01aa75ed71a1/language-

en.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment,

Candidates for Taxing Environmental Bads at National Level,

(

190

)

Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2024,

p. 17,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/35c1bbdf-2931-11ef-9290-01aa75ed71a1/language-

en.

Climate bonds initiative (https://www.climatebonds.net/). NB.

Additionally (and not included in this), national sources indicated

EUR 544.8 million issuance for Croatia, in 2022-2023, and a slightly

higher amount for Slovenia (+0.27 billion) during 2021-2023 in

total.

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Environmentally harmful subsidies

Addressing and phasing out environmentally harmful

subsidies, in particular fossil fuel subsidies (FFS), is a

further step towards achieving the eighth environment

action programme objectives and the enabling

conditions (

191

). FFS are costly for public budgets and make

it difficult to achieve European Green Deal objectives.

The overall downward trend of FFS mentioned in past EIRs

was disrupted from 2022 due to the European response to

the 2021 energy crisis and subsequent increase in energy

prices.

As a direct consequence, annual FFS in the EU increased to

EUR 109 billion in 2023 from EUR 57 billion in 2020. From

2021 to 2023, there was a marked increase in annual FFS

of 72 % in the EU (

192

For the majority of the Member States (16), the year 2022

saw a peak in the amount of overall FFS. A decline was

then observed in 2023 (

193

). In particular, FFS for coal and

lignite, natural gas and oil increased in 2022 and a strong

increase was observed for natural gas subsidies.

In Romania, there was some volatility in energy subsidies

between 2015 and 2021, with FFS ranging between

EUR 0.8 billion and 1.6 billion per year. In 2022, energy

subsidies increased overall, and they stayed high in 2023,

with FFS climbing to EUR 2.3 billion in 2022 and reaching

EUR 2 billion in 2023.

As a share of GDP, FFS in 2022 ranged from 1.8 % in Croatia

to less than 0.1 % in Denmark and Sweden. Romania’s

value reached 0.8 %, on a par with the EU average

(0.8 %) (

194

Figure 39: Energy subsidies by energy carrier, Romania

(billion EUR), 2015–2023

NB: RES, renewable energy source.

Romania received a priority action during the 2022 EIR to

devise an environmental financing strategy to maximise

opportunities for closing environmental implementation

gaps, bringing together all relevant administrative levels,

and addressing issues in project conception, development

and implementation, while using technical assistance

when necessary to increase administrative capacity. The

report pointed out that Romania had benefited

substantially from EU funds in the environmental field, but

had real absorption issues that needed to be addressed

urgently. Not much progress has been achieved. There

was also a priority action to look more closely into the

possibility of environmental financing from private

sources, as currently public sources provide almost two

thirds of such financing.

Romania has a similar overall environmental investment

gap as at the time of the 2022 EIR, at around 1.9 % of GDP

(above the EU average), related mostly to biodiversity and

ecosystems and to a lesser extent to the water objective.

2025 priority action

•

Use more national funding (for instance by increasing

taxes in favour of the environment and reducing

environmentally harmful subsidies), EU funding and

private funding to help close the investment gap.

(

191

)

(

192

)

(

193

)

Article 3(h) and 3(v) of the eighth environment action programme.

European Commission, 2024 Report on Energy Subsidies in the

European Union, COM(2025).

https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/documents-

16 Member States: BE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LT, HU, NL, AT,

( )

194

PT, RO and SE.

European Commission, 2024 Report on Energy Subsidies in the

European Union, COM(2025).

https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/documents-

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6. Environmental governance

Information, public participation and access to

justice

Citizens can more effectively protect the environment if

they rely on the three

‘pillars’

of the Aarhus Convention:

(i) access to information, (ii) public participation in

decision-making and (iii) access to justice in environmental

matters. It is of crucial importance to public authorities,

the public and businesses that environmental information

is shared efficiently and effectively (

195

). Public

participation allows authorities to make decisions that

take public concerns into account. Access to justice is a set

of guarantees that allows citizens and NGOs to use

national courts to protect the environment, safeguard the

rights of citizens and ensure accountability of

authorities (

196

). It includes the right to bring legal

challenges (‘legal standing’) (

197

Environmental information

This section focuses on the implementation of the

Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European

Community (Inspire) Directive. The Inspire Directive aims

to set up a European spatial-data infrastructure for sharing

environmental spatial information between public

authorities across Europe. It is expected that this will help

policymaking across boundaries and facilitate public

access to this information. Geographic information is

needed for good governance at all levels and should be

readily and transparently available.

Romania’s progress in implementing the Inspire Directive

is substantial and has been reviewed based on its 2023

country fiche (

198

) (see Table 3).

Table 3: Romania dashboard on implementation of the

Inspire Directive, 2016–2023

2016

2023

Legend

Effective coordination and

data sharing

Ensure

effective

coordination

Data sharing

without

obstacle

■

Implementation of

this provision is well

advanced or (nearly)

completed.

Outstanding issues are

minor and can be

addressed easily.

Percentage > 89 %

■

Inspire performance

indicators

(i) Conformity

of metadata

(ii) Conformity

of spatial

datasets

(iii)

Accessibility

of spatial

datasets

through view

and download

services

(iv)

Conformity of

network

services

■

Implementation of

■

Implementation of

■

this provision has

started and made some

or substantial progress

but is still not close to

being completed.

Percentage = 31–89 %

this provision is falling

significantly behind.

Serious efforts are

necessary to close the

implementation gap.

Percentage < 31 %

■

Source:

European Commission,

‘Romania’, Inspire Knowledge Base,

https://knowledge-base.inspire.ec.europa.eu/romania_en.

In 2022, Romania received a priority action on the need to

make spatial data more widely accessible and prioritise

environmental datasets (

199

). Romania has made progress

(

195

)

(

196

)

The Aarhus Convention (https://unece.org/environment-

policy/public-participation/aarhus-convention/text),

the Access

to Environmental Information Directive (Directive 2003/4/EC)

(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32003L0004)

and the Inspire

Directive (Directive 2007/2/EC) (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32007L0002)

together create a legal

foundation for the sharing of environmental information between

public authorities and with the public.

These guarantees are explained in the

European Commission’s

2017 notice on access to justice in environmental matters

(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:52017XC0818(02))

and a related

(

197

)

(

198

)

(

199

)

2018 citizen’s guide (https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/2b362f0a-bfe4-11e8-99ee-01aa75ed71a1/language-

en/format-PDF).

This EIR focuses on the means used by Member States to

guarantee rights of access to justice and legal standing and to

overcome other major barriers to bringing cases on environmental

protection.

European Commission,

‘Romania’,

Inspire Knowledge Base,

https://knowledge-base.inspire.ec.europa.eu/romania_en..

The

European Commission provides

a list of high-value spatial

datasets

(https://github.com/INSPIRE-MIF/need-driven-data-

prioritisation/blob/main/documents/eReporting_PriorityDataList

_V2.1_final_20201008.xlsx).

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on accessibility of spatial data, but more efforts are

needed. Therefore, the 2022 priority action is repeated.

Public participation

Public involvement at both the planning and the project

phase maximises transparency and social acceptance of

programmes and projects. Consultation with the public

(including NGOs) and environmental, local and regional

authorities is a key feature of an effective impact

assessment procedure. Such consultation also provides an

opportunity for public authorities and project promoters

to engage with the public actively and meaningfully by

making information on the likely significant effects widely

available. If carried out with due diligence and taking into

consideration useful public input, this process leads to

better-informed decision-making and can promote public

acceptance. Making information available increases

stakeholder involvement, thus lessening resistance and

preventing (or minimising) litigation. On the other hand, it

is paramount that the procedure is effective.

This section examines how public involvement and

transparency are ensured under two instruments, namely

the EIA Directive (

200

) and the Strategic Environmental

Assessment (SEA) Directive (

201

EU law provides for a flexible framework concerning EIAs.

The aim of this framework is to ensure the application of

the necessary environmental safeguards, while enabling

speedy approval of projects. The Commission has

contributed to simplifying and accelerating permitting for

renewable energy projects and continues to support the

Member States in this regard. Romania has already taken

some steps aimed at accelerating permit-issuing

procedures, taking advantage of the high degree of

flexibility offered by the EU legal framework, such as the

establishment of one-stop shops and accelerated short

deadlines for issuing permits for renewable energy

projects.

The average speed in the EU for issuing permits involving

an EIA procedure is 20.6 months, with a minimum

duration of 11.4 months and a maximum duration of

75.7 months (

202

). The duration of each step in an EIA

process (screening, scoping, EIA report, public

consultation, reasoned conclusion, development consent)

(

200

)

Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of

certain public and private projects on the environment (OJ L 26,

28.1.2012,

p. 1),

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32011L0092.

Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of the effects of certain

plans and programmes on the environment (OJ L 197, 21.7.2001,

p. 30),

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32001L0042.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment,

Collection of information and data on the implementation of the

varies considerably between Member States and projects.

The available data for Romania show that the average

duration of an EIA process is faster than the EU average.

Effective use of EU procedures can positively influence the

timely approval of activities underpinning the

decarbonisation of the economy on the way to net zero by

2050.

A new report is not yet available on the application and

effectiveness of the SEA Directive in the EU. Nevertheless,

a support study has been published with information by

Member State (

203

The relevant legislation obliges environmental protection

agencies to publish announcements and relevant

information on EIA and SEA processes on a central

website. However, as mentioned in previous EIRs, the

relevant Romanian website is not organised in a way that

facilitates searching for and identifying relevant cases.

Information about local projects, plans or programmes

subject to EIA/SEA procedures is published on each local

environmental agency’s website, in the

‘Regulations’

area.

Information about national EIA/SEA procedures is

published on the website of the central public authority

for environment protection, following the path

‘Domains’

→ ‘Impact

assessment’ (

204

No information is published by Romania on the number of

EIA and SEA processes or on the level of public

participation, either in individual cases or in aggregate.

In the 2022 EIR, Romania received priority actions to

improve the functioning of the website in relation to EIA

and SEA processes, to ensure that the public has adequate

information to identify cases of concern and adequate

opportunity to make comments, and to publish regular

information on the number of EIA and SEA processes and

their outcomes, including information on the level of

public participation and the extent to which public

comments were taken into account in final decisions.

Romania has made limited progress in this area, and

therefore the messages in these priority actions are

reiterated in a single 2025 priority action.

(

201

)

(

203

)

(

202

)

(

204

)

revised Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive

(2011/92/EU) as amended by 2014/52/EU),

Publications Office of

the European Union, Luxembourg, 2024, Tables 5 and 6,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/8349a857-2936-11ef-9290-01aa75ed71a1/.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment,

Lundberg, P., McNeill, A., McGuinn, J., Cantarelli, A. et al.,

Study

supporting the preparation of the report on the application and

effectiveness of the SEA Directive (Directive 2001/42/EC)

–

Final

study,

Publications Office of the European Union, 2025,

https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2779/1615072

http://www.mmediu.ro/.

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•

Access to justice

Access to justice, guaranteed by Article 19(1) of the Treaty

on European Union and Article 47 of the EU Charter of

Fundamental Rights, is a fundamental right and part of the

democratic process. It is vital to ensure the full application

of EU law in all Member States and the legal protection of

the rights of individuals, including in environmental

matters. Access to justice is essential to enable judicial

review of the decisions of public authorities and to allow

the correction of any wrongdoing committed by these

authorities.

This section provides a snapshot of the state of play of

access to courts by the public, particularly when it comes

to challenging plans, or the non-adoption of plans, under

EU law, in the areas of water, waste, air quality and noise,

irrespective of the form of the legal act (i.e. regulatory act

or administrative decision).

As outlined in the 2022 EIR, NGOs have a special status and

do not have to demonstrate a special interest in order to

have legal standing in an environmental court case or in

cases that could have significant effects on the

environment.

Plans and programmes under SEA that are specifically

required by EU law to be prepared are adopted through

laws issued by the parliament, or normative

administrative acts such as governmental decisions or

ministerial orders. Laws issued by the parliament can be

challenged on the ground that they breach the

constitution. If a plan or programme is not within the

scope of SEA, a public consultation will be carried out in

any case. Indeed, according to Law No 52/2003 on the

transparency of the decision-making of public authorities

regarding the public consultation procedure, and other

sectoral legislation, a public consultation must be carried

out prior to the adoption of a normative act. These

administrative acts

–

both SEA normative/administrative

acts and other normative acts under the scope of Law

No 52/2003

–

can be challenged in accordance with the

general provisions of Law No 554/2004.

•

Ensure that relevant information on EIA and SEA

procedures (including on public participation

opportunities and on publication of final decisions) is

electronically accessible in a timely manner, through

at least a central portal or easily accessible points of

access, at the appropriate administrative level.

Improve access to courts in national environmental

cases by the public concerned and eliminate practical

barriers, such as length of proceedings and excessive

costs in some Member States.

Compliance assurance

Environmental compliance assurance covers all work

undertaken by public authorities to ensure that industries,

farmers and others fulfil their obligations to protect water,

air and nature, to manage waste (

206

) and to remedy any

environmental damage. It includes measures such as (i)

compliance promotion, (ii) compliance monitoring (i.e.

inspections and other checks), (iii) enforcement, that is,

steps taken to stop breaches and impose sanctions, and

(iv) ensuring damage prevention and remediation in line

with the polluter-pays principle.

Compliance promotion, monitoring and enforcement

Non-compliance with environmental obligations may

occur for different reasons, including poor understanding

or lack of acceptance of the rules, opportunism or even

criminality. Compliance promotion activities help duty-

holders to comply by providing information, guidance and

other support. This is particularly important in areas

where new and complex legislation is put in place.

When inspections and other control activities identify

problems, a range of responses may be appropriate,

including the use of administrative and criminal

enforcement tools.

In November 2023, a regional conference dedicated to

strengthening the fight against crime affecting the

environment was held, which representatives from

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia,

France, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia,

Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland and Romania attended

(

207

No specific information is available on the prosecution of

environmental crimes, and concerns persist about the

capacity of the judicial system to deal with environmental

cases effectively. Criminal investigations and prosecutions

are generally not made public, in line with current

compliance and governance (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52018DC0010)

and the related

Commission

staff

working

document

(https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52018SC0010).

2025 priority actions

•

Make spatial data more widely accessible and

prioritise environmental datasets in implementing

the Inspire Directive, especially those identified as

high-value spatial datasets for implementing

environmental legislation (

205

(

205

)

(

206

)

The European

Commission provides a list of high-value

spatial

datasets

(https://github.com/INSPIRE-MIF/need-driven-data-

prioritisation/blob/main/documents/eReporting_PriorityDataList

_V2.1_final_20201008.xlsx).

The concept is explained in detail in

the European Commission’s

2018 communication on EU actions to improve environmental

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legislation, and only in a very few cases were press

releases made available to the public. It is difficult

therefore for concerned individuals or civil-society groups

to investigate whether, and what, action has been taken

by the authorities in cases of specific breaches of

environmental legislation. There are existing formal

arrangements for coordination among the bodies

responsible for enforcing penalties for environmental

damage or environmental crimes, issued as

‘protocols’

cooperation between the national environment agency

and various other public authorities (e.g. in 2011 and

2018), but it is not obvious that those guidelines have

resulted in a functioning system.

The recommendations issued in 2022 pointed to the need

for Romania to (i) provide information to farmers on how

to manage their land to improve biodiversity outcomes,

and more detailed site-specific information once

management plans are available for Natura 2000 sites; (ii)

encourage and monitor public participation in

enforcement, through activities to raise awareness of the

options for reporting environmental problems, and, more

generally, establish active plans for making use of citizen

science; (iii) make more information available on the

enforcement of environmental law, including by providing

regular information on the prosecution of environmental

crimes, as well as information on formal arrangements for

cooperation between responsible public bodies; and (iv)

make information available on environmental damage,

including information on penalties and other financial

measures. The 2022 priority actions concerning

compliance promotion, monitoring, and criminal and

administrative enforcement are not assessed here due to

a lack of systematic information. Similarly, the

Commission is not aware of whether or not information

regarding compliance with the Nitrates and Nature

Directives is easily available online at the national level for

farmers, and hence the 2022 priority action on this point

is not assessed.

Between 15 May 2022 and 31 December 2024, the

Commission received 71 complaints in relation to the

environment in Romania, making it the Member State

with the joint third highest number of complaints for that

period. That is 3.72 complaints per million inhabitants,

above the EU average of 3.2 (figures 40 and 41). A

significant proportion of those complaints concern waste

and nature, followed by water, air quality and EIA issues.

Figure 40: EU complaints 15 May 2022-31 December

2024

Source: DG Environment complaints data.

Figure 41: EU complaints per million inhabitants 15 May

2022-31 December 2024

Source:

Eurostat, ‘Population’ tps00001, accessed 22 January 2025,

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tps00001/default/tab

le?lang=en,

and DG Environment complaints data.

The new EU Environmental Crime Directive

The EU has recently strengthened its legal framework on

tackling the most serious breaches of environmental

obligations, notably by the adoption of the new ECD

(Directive (EU) 2024/1203/EU)(

208

) and new sectoral

legislation with stronger provisions on compliance

monitoring, enforcement and penalties. Issues important

for the transposition and the implementation of the

relevant new instruments are highlighted below; a

detailed assessment of these topics will be included in the

(

208

)

Directive 2024/1203/EU on the protection of the environment

through

criminal

law

(https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/1203/oj/eng).

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next EIR once more implementation measures are put in

place and more systematic information is available.

The new ECD replaced the 2008 ECD and introduced

several new offence categories, such as unlawful ship

recycling, unlawful water abstraction, and serious

breaches of EU legislation on chemicals, mercury,

fluorinated GHG and IAS of EU concern. It also covered the

establishment of qualified offences, subject to more

severe penalties where one of the offences defined in the

directive leads to serious widespread and substantial

damage or destruction of the environment. Concrete

provisions on the types and levels of penalties that can be

imposed for natural and legal persons who commit an

offence were also introduced. Other provisions will help

considerably to improve the effectiveness in combating

environmental crime of all actors along the enforcement

chain. These include obligations to ensure adequate

resources and investigative tools, specialised regular

training and the establishment of cooperation

mechanisms within and between Member States as well

as national strategies on combating environmental crime.

Member States are required to transpose the new ECD

into national law by 21 May 2026 and to take additional

measures to more effectively combat environmental

crime, in particular through training, coordination,

cooperation and strategic approaches. The Commission

will provide support, including by facilitating the

identification and sharing of good practices. Member

States are expected to ensure the availability of the

necessary resources and the specialised skills required and

they are invited to encourage their authorities to support

and cooperate with the recognised EU-level networks of

environmental enforcement practitioners, such as the EU

Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of

Environmental Law (

209

), EnviCrimeNet (

210

), the European

Network of Prosecutors for the Environment (

211

) and the

EU Forum of Judges for the Environment (

212

). The

European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation

and European Union Agency for Criminal Justice

Cooperation mechanisms for cooperation on cross-border

cases should be used more systematically for

environmental offences.

Environmental Liability Directive

The Environmental Liability Directive (ELD)(

213

) aims to

ensure that environmental damage is remediated in kind

at the expense of those who have caused it, in line with

the polluter-pays principle. It helps to halt the net loss in

biodiversity, as well as reducing the number of

contaminated sites and protecting the environmental

quality of groundwater and surface waters. The ELD is a

cross-cutting tool and a key enabler for better

implementation of EU environmental law.

The ELD addresses cases of significant environmental

damage to protected species and natural habitats, and,

when caused by operators carrying out certain potentially

hazardous activities, also damages to water and to soil.

The Commission has the legal obligation to periodically

evaluate the ELD. The ELD has undergone the second

evaluation (

214

), which will be finalised in 2025, and which

was supported by an external study (

215

), containing,

among other things, evidence, views, reports and other

relevant information gathered from different stakeholder

groups, including Member States.

One of the most relevant indicators in assessing

implementation and enforcement of the ELD is the

number of environmental damage cases handled under

the ELD, especially when this number is compared with

the previous reporting period. Fewer ELD cases were

reported in the second reporting period (2013–2022) than

in the first one (2007–2013). However, the downward

tendency in the number of ELD occurrences and their

overall low number do not necessarily mean that the ELD

has achieved its objectives, as the figure needs to be

compared with the overall number of environmental

damage cases, some of which may have been handled

under the other liability instruments.

The ELD has not always been effective in ensuring that the

polluter pays, because the liable operators often lack

financial capacity to carry out remediation measures.

While the ELD does not provide for a mandatory financial

security system, it explicitly calls for Member States to

encourage the development of financial security

instruments and markets, with the aim of enabling

operators to use financial guarantees to cover their

responsibilities under this directive.

(

209

)

(

210

)

(

211

)

(

212

)

(

213

)

https://www.impel.eu/en.

LIFE+SATEC

project

(https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/life/publicWebsite/project/LIFE2

0-PRE-ES-000001/fight-against-environmental-crime-at-a-

strategic-level-through-the-strengthening-of-envicrimenet-

network-of-experts-in-environmental-criminal-investigations).

https://www.environmentalprosecutors.eu.

https://www.eufje.org/index.php?lang=en.

Directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability with regard to the

prevention and remedying of environmental damage (https://eur-

lex.europa.eu/legal-

(

214

)

(

215

)

content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02004L0035-20190626).

Commission staff working document - Evaluation of the

Environmental Liability Directive, forthcoming 2025.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment and

Fogleman, V.,

Study in support of the evaluation of the

Environmental Liability Directive and its implementation

–

Final

report,

Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg,

2024,

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/006d90e5-980a-11ef-a130-

01aa75ed71a1/language-en.

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In the first reporting period, Romania reported one

occurrence of an imminent threat and three occurrences

of environmental damage under ELD. The second report

by Romania covers 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2021

and provides information about one occurrence of an

imminent threat of environmental damage. For

comparison, between 2007 and 2017 there were 1 186

non-ELD environmental damage occurrences in Romania.

Romania has not introduced mandatory financial security

for ELD liabilities, and demand for such instruments is low.

Environmental insurance policies are not generally

available and, even when they are available, they provide

cover only for remediating sudden and accidental

pollution. Environmental extensions to general liability

policies that provide cover for remediating pollution,

including pollution under the ELD, are not available, while

environmental extensions to property policies are

available only from a small number of insurers and they do

not provide cover for remediating pollution (or other

environmental damage) under the ELD or non-ELD

environmental legislation.

The 2022 EIR recommended that Romania make available

information on environmental damage, including

information on penalties and other financial measures.

Romania has made some progress in increasing the

availability of information. Annual reports are published

on the National Environmental Protection Agency’s

website describing ELD occurrences.

PEER tool (217). The technical assistance available through

cohesion policy is subject to shared management and is

not dealt with in this subsection.

The Commission’s technical support instrument

The TSI provides Member States with tailor-made

technical expertise on the design and implementation of

reforms. The support is demand driven and does not

require national co-financing.

The TSI had annual calls in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and

2025. The following environment-related projects have

been selected for Romania:

•

Support for implementing Romania’s renewable

energy support scheme from the Ministry of Energy

(2023);

ESG (

218

) risk management framework for the

financial sector from the National Bank of Romania

(2023);

Support to the preparation of Social Climate Plans,

involving the Ministry of European Investments and

Projects (2024) (2024);

Support to the revised EU Emissions Trading System,

also involving the Ministry of European Investments

and Projects (2024);

Development of legal framework for fully fledged and

comprehensive regional green hydrogen market from

the Ministry of Energy (2024);

Supporting the preparation of secondary legislation

needed for offshore wind development in the Black

Sea, Ministry of Energy (2025);

Water Losses Reduction for a sustainable water from

the National Regulatory Authority for Public Utilities

Services (ANRSC) (2025).

•

2025 priority action

•

Encourage the use of training programmes provided

by the Commission (or developed at the national

level) covering the ELD and its interactions with the

other national liability-related instruments, to ensure

more efficient ELD implementation, improve the

expertise of the competent authorities and raise

awareness among all stakeholder groups.

•

The Commission’s TAIEX-EIR PEER 2 PEER tool

The Commission launched the TAIEX-EIR PEER 2 PEER tool

in 2017. It aims to facilitate peer-to-peer learning among

Member States’ environmental authorities through

workshops (single or multi-country), expert missions

(where a delegation of experts travels to the requesting

institution) and study visits (where a delegation from the

requesting institution travels to a host country). Flagship

multi-country workshops are those requested by the

European Commission to present new and upcoming

EU-supported environmental capacity building

The Commission’s 2023 Compact () initiative to enhance

the administrative space identifies the capacity to lead the

green transition as one of three key pillars, along with the

public administration skills agenda and the capacity for

Europe’s Digital Decade. Compact also recognises the role

of the EIR reporting tool in improving environmental

governance. The two main capacity-building opportunities

for the environment provided by the European

Commission are the TSI (216) and the TAIEX-EIR PEER 2

(

216

)

(

217

)

See the European Commission web page on the TSI

(https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/find-

funding/eu-funding-programmes/technical-support-

instrument/technical-support-instrument-tsi_en).

See the European Commission web page on the TAIEX-EIR PEER 2

(

218

)

PEER

tool

(https://environment.ec.europa.eu/law-and-

governance/environmental-implementation-review/peer-2-

peer_en).

TAIEX: Technical Assistance and Information Exchange.

‘ESG’ here means ‘environmental, social and governance’.

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environmental legislation and policy in all Member

States (

219

Workshops involving Romania during the reporting period

were as follows:

•

Best practices on sustainable forest management,

with the participation of experts from several

Member States (9–11 March 2022);

•

Measures to reduce air pollution in transport and

residential energy, involving several Member States

(11–13 June 2024);

•

Good practices on noise abatement measures and

noise mapping: Directive 2002/49/CE, with the

participation of Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, the EEA

and the European Commission (26–27 September

2022);

•

Future challenges in air protection in Europe, under

the Czech Presidency (24 November 2024).

In 2022, Romania was encouraged to boost administrative

capacity and project preparation to make full use of EU

funds to build environmental infrastructure and protect

nature. In this respect, progress has not been sufficient.

2025 priority action

•

Improve overall national environmental governance,

in particular administrative capacity to support the

green transition and coordination at the regional and

local levels.

(

219

)

Flagship multi-country workshops are: Recast Drinking Water

Directive (3 April 2025); Environmental compliance and

governance (18 March 2025); Planning of Renewable Energy

Projects (20 February 2025); Air Quality: Implementation of the

revised Air Quality Directive (16 January 2025); Industrial safety:

awareness raising of emerging risks linked with climate change

and decarbonation (12 December 2024; Air quality:

implementation of the NEC Directive to further mainstream air

and broader pollution reduction in agricultural policy

(25 September 2024); Industrial emissions transposition and

implementation of the revised directive (12 September 2024);

Noise:

progress towards meeting Member States’ noise

limit

values and EU reduction targets (5 June 2024); Best practice use

of environmental footprint methods on the EU market (30 May

2024); Sustainable finance (9 November 2023); Textile waste

separate collection, treatment and markets (3 October 2023); EU

environmental funding and support (13 June 2023); Advisory

service for businesses to go circular (24 April 2023); Digital product

passport implementation (6 December 2022); Public involvement

in planning and approval of renewable energy projects

(17 November 2022); Environmental compliance and governance

(14 November 2022); Biowaste management (19–20 September

2022); and Renewable energy projects: permit granting processes

(13 June 2022). NB: The first flagship workshop on zero pollution

for air, water and soil took place9 February 2022.

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Annex: 2025 priority actions

Circular economy and waste management

Transitioning to a circular economy

•

Adopt measures to increase the circular material use rate.

Speed up the transition to a circular economy by implementing an updated national strategy and the

EU framework and recommendations, in particular to complement it with upstream circularity

measures.

Waste management

•

Complete closure of non-compliant landfills.

Improve separate collection at source e.g. through economic instruments, investing in infrastructure

for separate collection, sorting and recycling, and increasing public awareness.

Increase reuse of products and scale up waste recycling infrastructure associated with the higher steps

of the waste hierarchy. In particular, improve collection and increase treatment capacity for bio-waste.

Improve municipal waste preparation for reuse and recycling.

Increase the recycling rates of packaging waste.

Increase the collection and recycling rate of waste electronic and electric equipment (WEEE).

Improve the system for managing the quality of data on packaging waste in order to build coherent and

verifiable data sets.

Invest in waste prevention measures to reduce the total amount of waste generated.

Ensure the achievement of the 2025 waste targets, following the recommendations made by the

Commission in the early warning reports where applicable.

Ensure the achievement of the 2025 waste targets, following the recommendations made by the

Commission in the Early Warning Reports where applicable.

Ratify the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of

Ships.

•

Biodiversity and natural capital

Global and EU biodiversity frameworks

•

Submit to the CBD an updated NBSAP or national targets following the adoption of the Kunming-

Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Nature protection and restoration

–

Natura 2000

•

Complete the Natura 2000 site designation process.

Ensure the effective implementation of Natura 2000 management plans and sufficient administrative

capacity and financing for both Natura 2000 and the implementation of the Nature Restoration

Regulation. Ensure the implementation of Prioritised Actions Framework 2021–2027 PAF.

Enhance efforts to collect reliable data on the conservation status of habitats and species as well as

their prevalence at the site level. In view of this, consider the creation of a body in charge of monitoring

and reporting, to ensure that data are not provided only ad hoc on a contract basis.

•

Recovery of ecosystems

Agricultural ecosystems

•

Implement environmental eco-schemes and agri-environmental measures and practices to address the

environmental needs of Romania.

•

Implement and scale up the uptake of organic farming practices.

Wetlands/peatlands

•

Implement peatland conservation and restoration measures and include such measures and objectives

in the national restoration plans.

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Forest ecosystems

•

Take action against illegal logging activities and apply appropriate penalties and remedies for damage

done to Natura 2000 sites.

Prevention and management of invasive alien species

•

Step up implementation of the IAS Regulation, including with regard to enforcement and capacity of

inspection authorities

Ratify the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and

Sediments of 2004 (BWM Convention).

Ecosystem assessment and accounting

•

Support the development of the national business and biodiversity network.

Zero pollution

Clean air

•

As part of the NAPCP, take actions towards reducing emissions of air pollutants.

Ensure full compliance with the current AAQD standards, also in light of future stricter requirements

under the revised AAQD.

Upgrade and improve the air quality monitoring network, and ensure timely reporting of air quality

data.

•

Industrial emissions

•

Reduce industrial air pollution damage and intensity.

Reduce industrial releases to water, and their intensity.

Engage with industry and environmental NGOs to ensure proper contribution to and implementation

of BAT conclusions, and ensure timely updates to permits following the publication of BAT conclusions.

Ensure effective public participation and access to justice in relation to the IED.

Noise

Complete noise mapping.

Complete and implement action plans on noise management.

Water quality and management

Water Framework Directive

•

Tackle the obstacles identified in the implementation of measures, such as administrative capacity and

resources.

•

Improve river continuity and ecological flows, including in light of hydropower pressures.

•

Improve hydromorphological measures to meet objectives.

•

Reduce pollution from nutrients, chemicals, metals and saline discharges.

•

Improve the classification of waterbodies, reduce the gap to objectives and better justify exemptions.

Floods Directive

•

FRMPs should provide details on how the FHRMs were used in the choice of measures and how to

consider pluvial flooding.

•

Consider future climate scenarios in FRMPs.

•

Better explain the choice and implementation of flood prevention and protection measures

(prioritisation, monitoring, costs of measures).

•

Improve public consultation and stakeholder involvement.

Nitrates Directive

•

Tackle nutrient pollution, especially nitrates from agriculture through the implementation of the

Nitrates Directive.

Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive

•

Take the necessary measures to ensure full implementation of the current urban wastewater treatment

directive, taking into account the new requirements of the recast directive..

Chemicals

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•

Upgrade administrative capacities in implementation and enforcement towards a policy of zero

tolerance of non-compliance.

Increase involvement in the activities of the Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement of the

European Chemicals Agency, including in the coordinated enforcement projects, called REFs.

Increase customs controls and controls of products sold online with regard to compliance with

chemicals legislations.

Climate action

•

Implement all policies and measures that are needed to achieve targets laid down in the Effort Sharing

Regulation (ESR) and the Land Use and Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation. More

detailed priority actions are set out in the assessment of the final National Energy and Climate Plan

(NECP).

Financing

•

Use more national funding (including by increasing taxes in favour of the environment and reducing

environmentally harmful subsidies), EU funding and private funding to help close the investment gap.

Environmental governance

Information, public participation and access to justice

•

Make spatial data more widely accessible and prioritise environmental datasets in implementing the

Inspire Directive, especially those identified as high-value spatial datasets for implementing

environmental legislation.

Ensure that relevant information on EIA and SEA procedures (including on public participation

opportunities and on publication of final decisions) is electronically accessible in a timely manner,

through at least a central portal or easily accessible points of access, at the appropriate administrative

level.

Improve access to courts in national environmental cases by the public concerned and eliminate

practical barriers, such as length of proceedings and excessive costs in some Member States.

•

Compliance assurance

•

Encourage the use of training programmes provided by the Commission (or developed at the national

level) covering the ELD and its interactions with the other national liability-related instruments, to

ensure more efficient ELD implementation, improve the expertise of the competent authorities and

raise awareness among all stakeholder groups.

EU-supported environmental capacity-building

•

Improve overall national environmental governance, in particular administrative capacity to support

the green transition and coordination at the regional and local levels.

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