Preliminary assessment of the fourth payment request of Romania

undertaken through 19 different sub-projects. The Commission verified that the target of restoration of at least 30 kilometers of torrent bed has been achieved, by verifying the evidence for the sub- projects Izvorul Negru, Fetița Mare, Bistricioara, Casele Bisocii, Fetig, Bucșoița, Părâul Leșului, Maghernița, Martinu and Tisău-Cheia, as these ten sub-projects contain enough actions to meet the target. The table below references where proof of the achievement of the target can be found in the evidence.

Sub-project                         Km of torrent bed restored          Evidence No.       Page
Izvorul Negru                       2.467                               24                 101
Fetița Mare                         3.1                                 30                 58
Bistricioara                        4.5                                 38                 58
Casele Bisocii                      4.9                                 28                 41
Fetig                               3.1                                 21                 59
Bucșoița                            3                                   33                 58
Părâul Leșului                      3                                   34                 59
Maghernița                          1.97                                39                 70
Martinu                             2.89                                8                  4
Tisău-Cheia                         2.75                                29                 54
Total verified sub-projects         31.677

Any measures identified in the framework of the assessment under Directive 2000/60/EC (Water Framework Directive) as necessary to ensure compliance with the Do No Significant Harm Technical Guidance (2021/C58/01) shall be integrated into the project design and strictly complied with at the stages of construction, modernisation, operation and decommissioning.

Article 4 of the Water Framework Directive states that “Member States shall implement the necessary measures to prevent deterioration of the status of all bodies of surface water”. In addition, Annex V of the Water Framework Directive defines the general conditions for “good status” for rivers as “The values of the biological quality elements for the surface water body type show low levels of distortion resulting from human activity, but deviate only slightly from those normally associated with the surface water body type under undisturbed conditions”. Annex V also defines “good ecological potential” for heavily modified water bodies, setting out the criteria for biological, hydromorphological, physico-chemical elements and pollutants for a water body to be classified as having good ecological potential.

Furthermore, the Do No Significant Harm Technical Guidance states that “The Regulation establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) provides that no measure included in a Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) should lead to significant harm to environmental objectives within the meaning of Article 17 of the Taxonomy Regulation,” meaning Regulation (EU) No. 2020/852.

Article 17 of the aforementioned Taxonomy Regulation states that “economic activity shall be considered to significantly harm … the sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, where that activity is detrimental: (i) to the good status or the good ecological potential of bodies of water, including surface water and groundwater.” Good status or good ecological potential are defined in the Water Framework Directive as described above.

In line with the Taxonomy Regulation referenced in the DNSH Guidance, the project design is to integrate measures to prevent the deterioration of the status of the affected bodies of water and to maintain their good status or good potential, as defined in the Water Framework Directive. Compliance with this element is assessed in the DNSH analysis of the project design and by the competent Water Basin Administration (Administrația Bazinală de Apă) of the National

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