The fine announced by the Environmental Guard for the General City Hall. “The quality of the environment in the Capital risks leading us to a situation of infringing”
View of Bucharest from the Foișorul de Foc, September 13, 2024. Inquam Photos/ George Călin
The National Environmental Guard (GNM) declared on Friday that the Capital City Hall “does not comply with environmental protection and quality measures” in terms of air quality, green spaces and waste storage, a situation that has “serious” consequences and which may “result in an infringement action against Romania by the European Commission”.
Following an inspection carried out between October 29 and November 11, GNM announced on Friday that it “sanctions Bucharest City Hall with 100,000 lei for non-compliance with environmental quality measures”.
GNM says that, with this new sanction, the level of fines imposed starting from 2023 for the Capital City Hall “exceeds 550,000 lei”.
“We must avoid major sanctions from the European Commission that can amount to millions of euros for the poor air quality in the Capital. The Integrated Air Quality Plan is the number one priority and from the information we obtained from the control we know that this document is in the works”, stated the general commissioner of GNM, Andrei Corlan.
“The General City Hall must act quickly”
The head of GNM claims that “the risks go beyond the scope of environmental protection”.
“Air quality, green spaces and waste management are the three guidelines where the General City Hall must act quickly. The risks go beyond the scope of environmental protection, because we can talk about a public health problem but also an economic one, if we talk about the pecuniary sanctions that can be applied to Romania by the European Commission, for not fulfilling the obligations to ensure air quality”, Andrei Corlan also stated.
GNM claims that “the Register of Green Spaces continues to not be functional or updated, preventing proper management and protection of existing trees”, which “makes it virtually impossible to allocate the minimum European and legal standard of 26 m² of green/residential space”.
“Also, the commissioners identified lands belonging to the public domain that show advanced states of non-maintenance, with uncontrolled storage of waste and spontaneous vegetation,” the statement also states.
“The winter season is critical in terms of air quality in the Capital”
GNM told the Capital City Hall that it “must complete and apply” the Integrated Air Quality Plan “by March next year at the latest”.
“Until December 11, PMB must present the Emergency Measures Plans for Traffic and Residential Heating. As we have publicly announced, the winter season is critical in terms of air quality in the Capital, because the dispersion of harmful particles is affected by temperature conditions,” concluded GNM.
