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EUR 1.1bn worth of European funding attracted under environmental programs
Throughout the current year, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMSC) has carried out a range of domestic actions, campaigns and activities, all of them having environmental protection and education at the forefront.
At the same time, Minister in charge Rovana Plumb represented Romania at bilateral meetings with European Commissioners, Ministers and Secretaries of State of EU member states, as well as of non-EU states, the end goal of these approaches being the engagement of constructive projects and increasing Romania's European and international visibility in the line of environmental protection.
At the beginning of Rovana Plumb's term as Minister of Environment, the relevant Ministry had an absorption rate of EU funds allotted under the Sectoral Operational Program 'Environment' of 4.3%. In just a few months, this level advanced to 12.88% in early 2013, hitting 22.27% in autumn this year; the value of taken up funding was 1.1 billion euros. A number of 11 projects worth roughly an aggregate of 700 million euros were approved in 2013 under SOP 'Environment'. Also, as many as 88 funding projects were signed for various projects worth over 600 million euros.
In April 2013, Minister Rovana Plumb signed the financing agreement for a project envisaging the protection and rehabilitation of the southern part of the Romanian Black Sea coast, within the range of the Constanta municipality and of the Eforie Nord seaside resort. Measures for the protection against coastal erosion were proposed for a beach length of 7.3 km in five priority locations in the southern part of the Romanian seaside; the works are worth a total of EUR 170,450,084 euros.
In October this year, the Minister initialed together with Bucharest Mayor Sorin Oprescu the financing agreement for the largest integrated environmental project in Romania, the Glina wastewater treatment plant; the project is worth 416.5 million euros.
Also this year, the groundwork was laid for the Romania - UK cooperation aimed at creating jobs. To this end, Minister Rovana Plumb and British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Edward Davey signed in London a common statement on 'green growth.' Romania and the United Kingdom thereby undertake to strengthen cooperation in several areas, as well as to promote solutions and new technologies in the sector of environment and climate, in correlation with the exchange of best practices, with a view to creating 'green' new jobs.
During a visit to London, Minister Rovana Plumb met Prince Charles, with the two discussing the launch of a pilot project consisting of 100-percent eco-friendly facultative lagoon treatment plants built in 10 Romanian villages in the Mures, Brasov, Sibiu and Harghita counties. More than 8,500 rural residents will benefit from this initiative.
As far as green procurement is concerned, the Ministry of Environment has started this year, in co-work with the civil society, a large-scale project aimed at changing the state's consumption behavior. Thus, the project encourages the acquisition of eco-friendly goods and services, with as little as possible environmental impact, and with as substantial as possible saving of resources.
As far as climate change is concerned, the Ministry of Environment has managed to obtain this year 1.9 million euros from the sale of greenhouse gas certificates; the money was earmarked as funding for the building of the new Bucharest Underground mainline and for the acquisition of school minibuses. The Ministry set the legal framework in place for the implementation of the National GHG Certificate Trading Scheme over the period 2013-2020. On the other hand, in 2013 the Ministry succeeded to transpose into law Romania's National Strategy on Climate Change 2013-2020, the National Waste Management Strategy 2014 - 2020 , as well as Romania's National Strategy on Biodiversity.
Minister of Environment Rovana Plumb attended this year the launch of the 2013 session of the LIFE+ program, the European Union's financial instrument supporting environment and nature conservation projects, which was adopted by the European Commission in December 2011; the budget for the funding period 2014-2020 is set at 3.4 billion euros in current prices.