Preliminary assessment of the third payment request of Romania (2024)

 iv.    Copy of Ministerial Order of the Minister for Water and Forestry No. 2534 of
        28 September 2022 accepting the Technical Norms on the care and management of tree
        stands and of the Guide to Good Practice on the Care and Management of Tree Stands
        (hereinafter referred to as “Ministerial Order No. 2534/2022”), published in the Official
        Journal No. 989 of 12 October 2022;
   v.   Copy of Ministerial Order of the Minister for Water and Forestry No. 2535 of
        28 September 2022 accepting the Technical Rules on the choice and application of penalties
        and the Guide to Good Practice on the choice and application of communications
        (hereinafter referred to as “Ministerial Order No. 2535/2022”), published in the Official
        Journal No. 994 of 13 October 2022;
  vi.   Copy of Ministerial Order of the Minister for Water and Forestry No. 2537 of
        28 September 2022 extending the Technical Norms on regeneration of forests and annual

        control of regeneration and the Guide to Good Practice on forest regeneration and annual
        monitoring of regeneration (hereinafter referred to as “Ministerial Order No. 2537/2022”),
        published in the Official Journal No. 995 of 13 October 2022;
 vii.   Copy of Ministerial Order of the Minister for Water and Forestry No. 2536 of 28 September
        2022 approving the Technical Rules for forest management and the Guide to Good Practice
        on Forest Planning (hereinafter referred to as “Ministerial Order No. 2536/2022”),
        published in the Official Journal No. 999 of 14 October 2022;
viii.   Copy of Government Decision No. 1227 of 5 October 2022 approving the National Forest
        Strategy 2020-2030 (hereinafter referred to as “the Strategy”), published in the Official
        Journal No. 980 of 10 October 2022, with the National Forest Strategy 2020-2030 as the
        annex to the Government Decision;
  ix.   Copy of Government Emergency Ordinance No. 163 of 29 November 2022 supplementing

the legal framework for the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and for the way in which certain legislative acts are defined and supplemented, published in the Official Journal No. 1165 of 6 December 2022. Analysis:

The justification and substantiating evidence provided by the Romanian authorities cover all constitutive elements of the milestone.

Entry into force of the following amended Ministerial Ordinances (MO) in line with the binding rules for afforestation and reforestation foreseen in the National Forest Strategy 2020-2030:

a. Order no. 766/2018 regarding the elaboration and amendment of forest management plans, including of the provisions for land use of forest land, as well as of the Methodology regarding the approval of annual windthrow harvesting quotas.

Ministerial Order No. 1945/2021 was approved by the Minister for Water and Forestry on 26 October 2021. It amends and supplements the technical rules for the preparation of forest management plans, and amendment of their provisions and change of land use category forestry, approved by Ministerial Order No. 766/2018. Strategic direction of action (SDA) 5 of the Strategy proposes restrictions on the change of land use categories. Moreover, SDA9 of the Strategy calls for a Forest Register which shall make it possible to differentiate the structure of the information according to criteria such as the nature and size of the property, the form of management, the category of use, the functional category of the forest and the structure of the forest, the protected natural areas.

A newly added Article 1.1 specifies the validity of forest management plans, allowing for regeneration, maintenance, harvesting, and infrastructure works during the validity period without