Bankwatch Romania and Agent Green alert the European Commission: Romania’s judiciary fails in environmental cases – repeated violations of res judicata and abuse of power

Bankwatch Romania and Agent Green alert the European Commission:
Romania’s judiciary fails in environmental cases – repeated violations of res judicata and abuse of power

In a letter addressed to the European Commission’s Directorates-General for Justice and Environment (DG JUST and DG ENVI), the two nonprofit environmental organisations – Bankwatch Romania and Agent Green – and individuals directly affected by Romanian courts’ failure to enforce environmental decisions and by environmental regulators’ abuse of power alert the European Commission that, in recent years:
Romania has witnessed an alarming increase in cases of environmental degradation and violations of nature protection laws. This trend has significant implications not only for the country’s natural heritage but also for the rule of law. It also poses a challenge for environmental organisations and citizens campaigning for nature conservation.

Given that the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism – as the main instrument for checking Romania’s compliance with the rule of law – has been lifted, we ask the European Commission to investigate the specific cases reported, in which final court rulings are overturned and/or left unenforced, as well as cases in which environmental protection agencies and their management abuse power, act in bad faith or are complicit in environmental crimes, states the letter signed by Agent Green and Bankwatch Romania.

The serious cases of violations of res judicata and abuse of power reported are:

1. The hydropower project on the Taia River, where a final ruling by the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal in 2018, annulling the screening decision and environmental permit for a project built in a protected natural area without an environmental impact assessment, was ignored by the Hunedoara Environmental Protection Agency (APM). In 2022 it issued a new environmental permit for the same project. When the two signatory organisations challenged the new permit, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that it was legal. The judge concerned at the Bucharest Tribunal, a former adviser in the DGPI surveillance section/“Doi și-un sfert”, also approved the prohibitive lawyers’ fees requested by the hydropower project developer, thus limiting NGOs’ access to justice, a right guaranteed by the Aarhus Convention and Law 86/2000.
2. The Agricola Internațional Bacău – Slaughterhouse case. The project is located in Bacău, immediately next to inhabited homes and 900 metres from the Natura 2000 site ROSPA0063 Rezervoarele Buhuși-Bacău-Berești. The environmental permit for the expansion was annulled by the Bacău Court of Appeal in 2022, but the Bacău Environmental Protection Agency slipped the expansion works into the annual update of the integrated environmental permit in early 2023.
3. The Bumbești-Livezeni hydropower project, with a capacity of 65 MW, on the Jiu River and in Defileul Jiului National Park (ROSCI 0063). This project was first authorised in 2003 without an environmental impact assessment, but construction continued after the designation of Defileul Jiului National Park in 2005. Building permits were issued in 2012 and 2016. They were annulled by the Bucharest Court of Appeal in 2017, the court’s reasoning being that the project could not proceed without an environmental impact assessment. Yet under the law, the environmental impact can no longer be estimated for a project already under construction. In 2022, the hydropower project in Defileul Jiului National Park, along with another 8 hydropower projects in or near protected areas, was included in the Annex to Government Emergency Ordinance no. 175/2022, which derogates from the obligation to carry out an environmental impact assessment despite the irreversible court ruling of 2017.

Environmental activists, citizens and experts who monitor and report these problems face pressure from Romanian authorities and intimidation in the media, as well as financial penalties to which the courts turn a blind eye.

“In a state governed by the rule of law, disregarding court rulings cannot be tolerated, especially when it comes to environmental protection agencies whose decisions mutilate nature. Today we are alerting the European Commission so that these institutions reflect on their obligations and act in accordance with the law and judicial decisions. We must also remember the danger facing our fragile ecosystems and how we cannot combat climate change by drying up even more rivers, nor by silencing NGOs or ordinary citizens who challenge such decisions,” says Ioana Ciută, president of Bankwatch Romania.

“The failings we are reporting to the Commission show recklessness on the part of Romanian authorities. Romania has a legal obligation to restore hundreds of kilometres of watercourses, not concrete them over. And poultry farms need to be rethought in the context of avian influenza, at a time when this virus has undergone mutations that already facilitate transmission to humans and the onset of a brutal pandemic with a mortality rate tens of times higher than COVID-19. Yet the expansion plan for the poultry slaughterhouse belonging to SC Agricola Internațional SA Bacău is right inside an area protected for bird species. That means an imminent and unnecessary risk of spreading viruses to wildlife and people,” warns Gabriel Păun, president of Agent Green.

In the Agricola Internațional Bacău – Slaughterhouse case, citizens gravely affected by violations of the law by institutions whose very purpose is to protect the environment and people are seeking justice themselves, denouncing abuses in Romania’s justice system:
“In Romania, European directives intended to protect the environment are flagrantly violated by the authorities that should implement them but instead contribute to the continuous degradation of protected species’ habitats, thus endangering their existence and reducing the quality of life of people in residential areas! The abusive expansion of a slaughterhouse near a protected natural area and in the middle of a community, in breach of minimum health protection distances, means a slow but certain death,” warns Matei Tamboi.
“Although Romania is a member of the European Union, it struggles to break free from the customs of the communist state. Even though European environmental protection laws have been accepted and transposed into national legislation, representatives of the Bacău Environmental Protection Agency and National Environmental Guard seem to act at the polluters’ command, ignoring European environmental legislation and the citizens of this country, causing them irreparable suffering and trauma,” says Lucian Tarcău.

Signatories:

Agent Green – Gabriel Păun

Bankwatch Romania

Matei Tamboi
Lucian Tarcău

11 September 2023, Bucharest