Preliminary assessment of the first payment request of Romania

The list includes 1 391 educational establishments. Commission Preliminary Assessment: Satisfactorily fulfilled

[Loan support]

                  Related Measure: Strengthening the regulatory framework for the sustainable
Number: 1         management of the water and wastewater sector and accelerating public access to
                  quality services under European directives
Name of the Milestone: Entry into force of the amendments to the Law No 241/2006 on water
supply and sewerage
Qualitative Indicator: Provision in the law indicating the entry into force of
                                                                               Time: Q4 2021
the law
Context:

The objective of this reform is to improve the capacity of regional water infrastructure operators, in order to improve the quality and efficiency of cooperation between them and the local authorities/inter-community development associations (IDAs) and water and channel infrastructure owners. To reach this objective, a number of legislative and regulatory changes have to be made by the Romanian authorities. The initial step of this reform is the modification of the Law No 241/2006 on water supply and sewerage, covered by this milestone. The reform will be complemented by the setting up of the national programme “First Connection to Water and Sanitation”, which will support families and single people on low incomes to pay the costs incurred for connection to the water supply and sewerage system.

This milestone requires amendments to the Law in order to enable the approval of tariff strategies by the general meeting of the IDAs, impose obligations regarding the record keeping of persons that do not discharge wastewater into the public sewerage network and send the list of such persons to the National Environmental Guard annually, the prohibition of direct discharge of untreated wastewater and requiring persons that do not have an appropriate individual collection and treatment system to connect to existing public sewerage systems. The law also establishes the rules regarding the provision of collection of wastewater services, and develops the criteria for authorization, construction, registration/record, operation and maintenance of appropriate individual systems. Evidence provided:

In line with the verification mechanism set out in the Operational Arrangements, the following evidence was provided:

1. Summary document justifying how the milestone (including all the constitutive elements) was satisfactorily fulfilled (Cover Note). 2. Copy of the publication in the Official Journal No. 1258 of 31 December 2021 of the amendments to the Law No. 241/2006 on water supply and sewerage and reference to the relevant provisions indicating the entry into force. Analysis:

The amendments to the Law No. 241/2006 were adopted by a government emergency ordinance and were published in the Official Journal No. 1258 of 31 December 2021 and entered into force on the same day. In addition to the copy of the publication in the Official Journal of the amendments to

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