New Legal Updates: Annual Visa For Environmental Authorisation And Integrated Environmental Authorisation

• Published date: 14 December 2020
• Subject Matter: Environment, Environmental Law
• Law Firm: Maravela, Popescu & Asociatii
• Author: Ms Dana Rădulescu and Ada Pascu

1. New provisions regarding environmental studies

On June 11, 2020, Order of the Minister of Environment, Water and Forest no. 1.150 from May 27, 2020 was published in the Official Gazette no. 495. (the 'Order no. 1.150/2020').

Order no. 1.150/2020 established a new procedure for the annual visa of the Environmental Authorisation and Integrated Environmental Authorisation.

The procedure provided by Order no. 1.150/2020 is effective starting with July 11, 2020. The procedure is applied also for the visas issued before July 11, 2020.

For the application of the annual visa requested before July 11, 2020, the public authority for environment protection will close the application and will inform the holder of the authorisation of the obligation to apply for the visa in the next year. In other words, it seems that as long as an application for visa is pending at the date of the entry into force of Order 1.150/2020, the authority will not analyse such an application and issue a visa but it will rather inform the applicant that he needs to follow again the procedure next year as detailed under section 3 below.

2. The competent public environment protection authorities

The annual visa is issued or rejected by the following public environment protection authorities:

• the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forest (the 'Ministry') and the Administration of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reservation (the 'Delta Danube Administration') for the Environmental Authorisation and Integrated Environmental Authorisation within their competence;
• the National Agency for Environmental Protection (the 'National Agency') for the Environmental Authorisation and Integrated Environmental Authorisation that are not in the competence of the Ministry or Delta Danube Administration;
• the County Environmental Agencies for the Environmental Authorisation and Integrated Environmental Authorisation in their competence per the delegation decision issued by the National Agency.

3. The Visa

The application for the annual visa will be submitted by the holder of the Environmental Authorisation or the Integrated Environmental Authorisation, as the case may be. The application may be submitted also on - line, by e-mail of fax).

The application file will contain the following documents:

• a written request (a standard form);
• the annual environmental report or other reports required under the regulatory...