Preliminary assessment of the first payment request of Romania

Law No. 241/2006, Romania also provided a detailed analysis of the amendments to the Law No. 241/2006 to demonstrate the compliance with the CID Annex, which can be summarised as follows:

Concerning the approval of the tariff strategy of the regional water and sewerage operator by the general meeting of the Intercommunal Development Associations (IDAs), based on the special mandate received from the local administrative units, article 35 paragraph (3) of the Law has been modified to allow the tariff strategy to be approved by decision of the general meeting of the Intercommunal Development Associations for the purpose of water supply and sewage services. Through this change Romania explained that the timeline for the approval of the tariff strategy will be reduced by 3 to 12 months as the decision-making process will be harmonised and will remain only at the level of the general meeting of IDA instead of requesting separate decision-making procedures at each administrative-unit level. The faster adoption of the tariff strategy provides earlier certainty in the approval and financing of water infrastructure investment projects made from public funds and is therefore expected to enable the extension of the water and wastewater service infrastructure.

Concerning the obligation of the local public administration authorities to keep records of natural and legal persons that do not discharge waste water into the public sewerage network and send the list of such persons to the National Environmental Guard annually, within article 14 of the law, after the letter g) two new letters h) and i) have been inserted providing that those local authorities shall keep records of natural and legal persons that do not connect to existing or newly established public sewerage systems under the conditions set out in Article 31 (14) and that do not discharge wastewater to the existing public sewerage network, in collaboration with operators or regional operators, in order to make an inventory of individual wastewater collection systems and to notify the population for compliance. The related sanctions (fines and imprisonment) are provided by Water Law 107/1996, notably articles 87 and 92. Romania confirmed that the data on illegal discharging of wastewater will be uploaded annually on a specific platform accessible to various administration, including the Environmental guards.

Concerning the obligation of users to connect to existing public sewerage systems if they do not have an appropriate individual collection and treatment system, article 31 paragraph (14) has been modified to include a requirement that users, either natural or legal persons, including those who have their own water supply systems, shall be required to connect to the existing or newly established public sewerage systems.

Concerning the requirement that the Law allows to organise, where appropriate, the provision of the water service only, on the condition that the collection of wastewater is done through individual collection and treatment systems that shall ensure the same level of environmental protection as centralised collection and treatment systems , article 2 paragraph (4) has been modified to include that only the water supply service may be organized in the territorial administrative units, provided that the collection of wastewater is ensured through individual systems appropriate for wastewater treatment. These individual systems ensure hygiene and health of the population and the protection of the environment at standards similar to centralized sewerage and treatment systems. Concerning the requirement to ensure the exceptional nature of adequate individual systems in the sense that these systems address situations where centralised systems are not technically and economically feasible, two new paragraphs (141) and (142) have been added after article 31 paragraph (14), providing that natural and legal persons have the obligation to use some

appropriate individual systems or other appropriate systems which can ensure the same level of environmental protection, exclusively in the situation in which the installation of a public sewerage network is not possible for environmental or economic reasons.

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