Romanian NGOs urge EU Commission to enforce moratorium to protect local forests

Three environmental NGOs have urged the EU Commission to enforce a memorandum on Romania’s illegal logging in an open letter addressed to Commissioner Sinkevičius.

The nature conservation organisation EuroNatur, together with its Romanian and legal partners, Agent Green and Client Earth, urged the commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius to use the final year of his mandate “to end the destruction of Romanian forests, in the open letter published on Monday.

“Given the systemic problem, the issue will not be resolved by only conversing with Romanian authorities or trusting that they will make the needed changes; they must be held legally accountable“; the case“shall be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union”, the NGOs said in the letter.

Draft conclusions of a delegation composed of the members of the EU Parliament also put the European Commission under pressure to take action.

There is “deep concern about the illegal logging phenomenon in Romania”, according to the draft report of the visit made by a delegation of members of the EU Parliament on Romanian deforestation sites, as seen by Euractiv Romania.

The illegal harvest “is putting the last virgin forests in Europe under threat, fuelled by foreign corporate money and driven by corruption and organised crime”, according to the cited document.

The visit followed the numerous petitions made by environmental activists, which estimated 80% of illegal harvesting, while Romanian authorities hardly reported 0.15% of the timber as illegally harvested, according to the green Nicu Ștefănuță, member of the delegation Fagaras Mountains and Suceava county, in centre and north-western Romania, in May.

The Commission expressed “deep concern” and will continue to monitor the implementation and enforcement of EU environmental legislation. A new letter with three major issues to be solved and implemented by the Romanian authorities is to the sent, Nicu Ștefănuță, MEP, (Renew) told Euractiv Romania, however, the Commission would need more data to bring the issue to the court, he added.

After the visit to the sites, in May 2023, the Estonian MEP Yana Toom (Renew), pointed to varying figures and the contradictory data that Romanian authorities had sent.

Over the last four years, the Commission sent formal notice and a reasoned opinion to Romanian authorities and launched, in February 2020, an infringement procedure.

“Despite numerous petitions from environmentalists, civil society is not involved in the dialogue either on the legislative side or in implementation,” Magda Constantin, senior communication specialist of WWF Romania, told Euractiv.

(Manuela Preoteasa & Cătălina Mihai | Euractiv.ro)

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