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

equipment and registration of inspection and control vehicles, as well as the equipment necessary to carry out road safety inspections, published in the Official Journal No. 1189 of 12 December 2022. xix. Copy of the Report presenting road sectors where speed limit reductions were implemented on the basis of the Annex to the Report No. 2707913 of 6 June 2022 regarding the ‘Analysis of road traffic accidents’, issued by the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police – Traffic Directorate and the corresponding 16 reports justifying the implementation of speed limit reductions. xx. Copy of Ministerial Order No. 1218 of 1 July 2022 amending the Regulations on the periodic technical inspection of vehicles registered in Romania - RNTR 1, approved by the Ministerial Order No. 2.133/2005, published in the Official Journal No. 711 of 15 July 2022. xxi. Copy of Government Emergency Ordinance No. 195 of 12 December 2002 regarding traffic

on public roads, published in the Official Journal No. 958 of 28 December 2002 and republished in the Official Journal No. 670 of 3 August 2006. xxii. Copy of Law No. 265 of 7 November 2008 regulating the management of traffic safety on road infrastructure, published in the Official Journal No. 777 of 20 November 2008. xxiii. Copy of Ministerial Order No. 2133 of 8 December 2005, published in the Official Journal No. 1160 of 21 December 2005. Analysis: The justification and substantiating evidence provided by the Romanian authorities cover all constitutive elements of the milestone.

The following legislative changes promoting road safety shall be introduced:

• - enforcement of the rules governing compliance, higher penalties for breaches of the law;

Government Ordinance No. 1 of 27 January 2022 (hereinafter referred to as GO 1/2022) amended Government Emergency Ordinance No. 195 of 28 December 2002 (hereinafter referred to as GEO 195/2002), setting out the main legislation regarding traffic rules on public roads, to introduce provisions defining illegal behaviour on public roads, increasing sanctions for existing rules, and improving the process for imposing sanctions. In particular: (i) Article I(2) introduces a new sanction allowing the police to withhold the driving licence when the driver could not be tested to determine the alcohol/psychoactive substances concentration in the exhaled air and for which a medical examination was necessary to confirm the presence of these substances; (ii) paragraphs 6 and 9 under Article I, introduced new administrative penalties such as the interdiction to drive a vehicle in Romania using a driving licence issued by a foreign authority for which there is a permanent Court decision to annul that driving licence; (iii) paragraph 12 of the same article introduced a new contravention for aggressive behaviour in traffic; (iv) paragraph 15 introduced a new contravention

for failure to comply with the obligation to permanently keep clean the windscreen, rear window and side windows of vehicles, agricultural or forestry tractors, if this restricts the visibility while driving; (v) paragraph 17 introduced new contraventions and an increase to a class III sanction from the previous class II, including the suspension of the driving licence for 60 days for not granting priority to pedestrians or vehicles, for aggressive behaviour resulting in an accident or for non- compliance with overtaking rules; (vi) Article I(20) introduced new contraventions and a class IV sanction from the previous class III sanction, including the suspension of the driving license for 90 days for unjustified driving on highway emergency lanes or non-compliance with the overtaking rules, in case it caused a traffic accident producing vehicle or material damages; (vii) Article I(21) introduced new contraventions and a class IV sanction from the previous class III sanction, including the suspension of the driving license for 120 days for exceeding with more than 70 km/h the maximum allowed speed limit, not stopping at the red light at railway level crossing or for various

illegal driving manoeuvres such as U-turns on highways, changing traffic direction by crossing unallowed sections of the road; (viii) paragraph 23 of this article increased the suspension of the right to drive from 90 days to 180 days when the driver was investigated for an offense against