The initiative belongs to the Minister of Environment, Diana Buzoianu, and USR senators Cynthia Păun and Aurel Oprinoiu.
After promulgation, the National Agency for Environment will have to display on its own website, in an easy-to-consult form, the names of authorized companies, the tax code, the types of activities for which they have received approval and the environmental authorization in full. The list is to be updated within 10 working days at most each time changes occur.
The Minister of Environment says the measure „is extremely important” and stated that the ministry has already started publishing some of this information. “We at the ministry have started to publish some of this information even without the draft law,” said Diana Buzoianu, emphasizing that the lack of public information has allowed abuses and illegal practices to occur.
“In a country where people are losing years of their lives due to pollution, it is extremely important to have real transparency of all environmental permits, which is why I have made this a priority since taking office.”
In parallel, the ministry continues its actions to combat illegal waste transport, including by scanning trucks at the border and using drones in controls.
“We continue the fight against the garbage mafia, as evidenced not only by the extensive control actions carried out and the sanctions applied, but also by other measures adopted, such as the one regarding the X-ray scanning of trucks entering the country with illegal waste or the use of drones in field actions,” explained the USR Minister.
According to the initiators, until now not all county environmental protection agencies made the granted authorizations public, which made it difficult to verify operators. In the absence of a centralized database, local authorities, companies and civic organizations had difficulty finding out whether a company was legally authorized to collect, transport or treat waste.
Cynthia Păun believes that the lack of transparency has fueled, over time, public distrust and illegal activities, and publishing this information will allow anyone to quickly verify who is operating legally. “With this project, the state no longer turns a blind eye, but opens the data to the public. Anyone will be able to clearly see who is operating legally and who is not,” says the senator, a member of the Senate Environment Committee.
In turn, Senator Aurel Oprinoiu, vice-chairman of the Senate Environment Committee, emphasized that free access to updated information represents an important step towards “a functional administration and clearer rules” for all actors involved.
The law maintains the obligation that waste management activities be carried out only by authorized operators, but additionally introduces a mechanism through which this information becomes visible and easily verifiable by the public.