Parliament adopts the anti-nature law. Environmental NGOs notify the Ombudsman and Romania’s President of its unconstitutionality

Press release — 28.03.2022

On 23 March, Romania’s Parliament adopted the law amending protected areas to allow hydropower projects to continue, some begun during the Ceaușescu era. The bill entails the destruction of the only large mountain river still flowing freely in the Romanian Carpathians — the Jiu — as well as several other mountain rivers of outstanding ecological and scenic value, such as Răstolița, Valea Bradului, Ilva Mare, Bistra and Bratcu.

The new law was passed without an impact assessment of the legislative proposal, in breach of constitutional provisions and European law. Bankwatch România and Agent Green, together with Federația Coaliția Natura 2000, Declic and Greenpeace, have therefore notified the Ombudsman and Romania’s President.

Moreover, the amendments to bill PL No. 132/2022 were changed during the Chamber of Deputies’ plenary session, completely changing the meaning of the bill. The initial proposal provided for removal from protected areas “for investment projects to develop hydropower facilities, with the projects under construction or begun” before the areas were declared protected on 29 June 2007. The version adopted by the Chamber of Deputies and amended during the plenary session provides that “investment projects to develop hydropower facilities under construction with a completion rate above 60% as of 1 May 2022 are considered projects of overriding public interest and national safety and security”.

The environmental organisations have submitted notifications to the Ombudsman requesting that the Constitutional Court (CCR) be notified of the legislative act’s unconstitutionality. They also ask President Klaus Iohannis not to promulgate the law.

“This law helps us achieve neither energy independence nor nature conservation. It is a grave insult to democracy and European values. We call on the authorities to stop this massacre of protected areas,” said Cătălina Rădulescu, lawyer for Bankwatch and AgentGreen.

“These rivers are being sacrificed for extremely low and, moreover, sporadic electricity production — the Jiu hydropower plants would not operate for more than half the year. These rivers provide ecosystem services infinitely greater than the economic benefit obtained by exploiting them for hydropower. PSD, PNL, UDMR and AUR have agreed to serve private interests. The energy sector’s ‘smart guys’ are now overjoyed. Once again they will receive contracts worth millions of euros from the state to finish old, illegal hydropower plants,” said Roxana Pencea Brădățan, Declic campaigns coordinator.

The organisations stress that the legislative amendment was introduced in breach of several constitutional articles concerning compliance with the law with reference to Law No. 24/2000 on legislative drafting rules; the Romanian state’s duty to fulfil precisely and in good faith its obligations under treaties to which it is a party; ensuring and respecting the right to a healthy, ecologically balanced environment; and the state’s duty to ensure environmental restoration and protection and maintain ecological balance.

The legislative proposal was not sufficiently substantiated according to the requirements of lawmaking and violates the harmonisation of domestic with Community legislation, compliance with international environmental protection treaties, and CJEU and ECHR case law established by earlier decisions in similar cases. The proposed amendment was required to be accompanied by an impact study, which did not exist when the law was adopted.

The law is also incompatible with the purpose of the amended act, Emergency Ordinance OUG 57/2007, which transposes European environmental protection directives on habitats, birds, and wild flora and fauna species. The law creates exceptions allowing all construction and forest clearance to proceed without environmental assessments, with centuries-old forests essential to the sustained fight against climate change being cut down. The hydropower plants concerned, Bumbești-Jiu and Răstolița, lie in areas declared protected under the ordinance, lack an adequate assessment of adverse environmental impacts, provide no measures to prevent them and will significantly affect protected species, as environmental organisations showed in the analysis submitted to Romania’s Senate (PDF in Romanian).

You can read the full letters below:

https://bankwatch.ro/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/sesizare-Presedintele-Romaniei_PL132.2022.pdf (PDF in Romanian)

https://bankwatch.ro/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/sesizare-Av-poporului_PL132.2022.pdf (PDF in Romanian)