The Ministry of the Environment is working on a process to transpose national legislation into European law
The Ministry of the Environment is working on an extensive process of transposing national legislation into European legislation. There are still many backlogs in this area, which require the replacement of the Ministry's staff. The subject was discussed at the public hearings on the progress of the implementation of the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union, held today in Parliament.
Of the 54 acts directly related to the Environment Ministry's policies, only 21 have been fully implemented and there is still much work to be done to fill the backlog, said Doina Gherman, chairwoman of the parliamentary committee on foreign policy and European integration.
"In transposed and partially transposed directives, 21 EU acts are not implemented in national legislation. On leftovers, I understand that the deadline for transposition on some directives has expired as late as 2017, 2019. The Ministry of Environment is responsible for two working groups out of 33 sectoral chapters", Doina Gherman said.
The process of harmonising the regulatory framework is quite complicated and requires additional expenditure, said the vice-chair of the parliamentary committee on the environment, Ina Coșeru. She stressed that the number of staff in the Ministry of the Environment needs to be increased to close existing gaps.
"The environment chapter that we find in several chapters of the Association Agreement is one of the most complicated, because it is not just a simple transposition, but the creation of a very sophisticated and costly infrastructure for environmental protection. There are a lot of complicated things that we have to put in place, but with 45 people currently working on this process, we will not be able to cope", concluded Ina Coșeru.
The environment ministry is currently working on harmonising legislation, in particular on climate change, water law and waste management, says environment minister Rodica Iordanov.
According to her, the ministry will be reorganised to bring in more specialists from outside to help the authorities make progress in transposing directives that are overdue.
"We are already working on the most important areas - climate change, habitats, water law, waste management and air quality law. For those that have not been transposed, we already have an action plan in place. We are reorganising the Ministry of the Environment to provide the directorates with specialists in different areas that have not been transposed. We already have two projects to hire international experts. We are in a permanent working process with the Romanian Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests", said Rodica Iordanov.
Rodica Iordanov said that the Ministry of Environment employs 62 people, most of whom are working on harmonising legislation.
