The Ministry for European Funds organized a special conference alongside the Ministry of the Environment on May 29th 2015; it was one of the most important events organized by the authorities on the topic of waste management in the past 5 years.
The Minister of the Environment, Water and Forests - Mrs. Gratiela Gavrilescu - opened the conference with a firm and critical tone towards the current situation in the field of recycling. The same approach was taken by State Secretaries Mihail Faca from the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Forests and Valentin Olimpiu Soneriu from the Ministry of European Funds; both discussed the crisis in waste management in Romania.
Among those who spoke at the event were members of the European Commission: George Kremlis (Head of Implementation Unit, Cohesion and European Semester, Environment GD), Madalina Caprusu (desk officer, Waste Management and Recycling Unit, Environment GD), Nina Miron ( Case handler officer, Implementation Unit, Cohesion and European Semester, Environment GD), Benoit Nadler (Desk officer, Unit for Romania, Regional and Urban Policy GD), Andrei Daniela Valeria (Desk officer, Waste Management and Recycling Unit, Environment GD).
Talks were held on the following topics:
• The seriousness of Romania’s current situation - 3% recycling rate for municipal waste
• Illegal waste warehouses and weak implementation of separate collection on 4 fluxes (paper, glass, plastic, compost)
• Future co-incinerators that should be set up only for unrecyclable waste
• The challenges Romania faces in reaching its 50% target rate for recycling in 2020
• Open infringement procedures
• The bad results in absorbing Environment SOP funds - 42% with just one project finalized in Bistrita
• The fragile institutional environment in Romania and lack of institutional efficiency
• Insufficient political commitment in this field.
The conference was attended by members of local authorities (city halls, county councils, environmental agencies) and organizations like ECOTIC, represented by Mr. Valentin Negoita - President, and Dragos Calugaru - General Manager. Mr. Negoita was among the speakers of the conference and he underlined the lack of cooperation between local authorities for optimal WEEE management.
The members of the European Commission requested drastic measures in order to bridge the huge gap between Romania and the average European level of waste management:
• Measures that will increase the absorption of available European funds and will support the Intra-community Development Agencies
• Strengthening the Directorate on waste management within the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Forests
• Commitment and "ownership" form local authorities