Silvian Ionescu

Statement of Mr. Silvian IONESCU, State secretary,
General Commissioner,National Environmental Guard

Starting with 2004 the institution I am heading takes part actively in the projects implemented by the IMPEL network. From all these projects we have taken over many ideas and models which we have tried to implement adapting them to the specificity of our institution. Here I wish to recall just few of them:
     • The collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency from UK and the project „Doing the right things”, have provided the bases for the system of environmental risk assessment;

The IMPEL project regarding Performance Indicators confronted us with delicate and essential issues, in relation to the performance of the comissioners in particular, and of environmental inspection institutions, in general;
     • The projects concerning the inspections at cement plants and pig farms establish the bases for drafting internal guidelines for these particular type of inspections;
     • The common inspections at the Romanian-Hungarian border have opened perspectives for new ways of collaboration on the sensitive topic of environmental crime prevention related to illegal transfrontier shipment of waste with Hungary.
     • This common activity opened new ways of cooperation also with Bulgaria, using Financial Instruments under the European Union’s cohesion policy for 2007 – 2013.
     • The actions undertaken will consider the European Union’s priorities regarding sustainable development and competitiveness, the degree of employment and social inclusion as well as through protecting and improving environmental quality; the final objective of the cross – border cooperation within the European Union is to integrate the regions divided by national boundaries facing joint problems and needing joint solutions.
Despite our sustained efforts of dissemination of good practices , Romanian’s environmental problems are far from being solved.

Well established companies known for conducting environmentally correct business abroad, once operating in Romania seem to forget about environmental issues.
Quite often we are confronted with situations where under the title of raw materials, waste crosses our border.
Eventhough we achieved the regulation of IPPC installations, the implementation of BAT is still tedious, on one hand due to the inheritage of obsolete technologies and, on the other hand , due to an insufficient level of competence of public servants from environmental institutions.

We carefully regard the way in which companies from Romania make use of the concept of corporate social responsibility , but unfortunately in most of the cases their approach is barely formal, since very few understand the connection between sustainability of their business and performance in the environmental field.

The environmental enforcement strategies in Romania must conform to these realities. While the model of our institution is different from that of other environmental institutions from Europe, we consider it a successful one.

In 2007, with a body of approximately 500 environmental comissioners, our institution imposed sanctions amounting 26 millions Euro meaning an average of 52 000 Euro/comissioner.
In 2008 we had 19 millions Euro, an average of 42 000 Euro/comissioner and in 2009 till 31 August 8 millions Euro meaning an average of 14 500 Euro/comissioner.
It is debatable whether it is much or little, however the civil society asks for more, while polluters invoke a much more flexible policy.

NEG is currently the beneficiary of 2 twinning projects with ARPA Lombardia. The following observations are strongly recommended to be taken in consideration to demonstrate that management and control structures are in place and operate effectively:
     • to ensure the strengthening of administrative capacity in the respect of NEG’s independent role, by guaranteeing stability, continuous training and technical expertise of personnel ;
     • to improve co-ordination between all the stakeholders (at central, regional and local level) involved in environmental enforcement, such as local public authorities and representatives of private bodies, to go forward in the approach of prevention and not only to adopt the approach of inspection;
     • to reinforce the number of personnel hired in NEG, because of the high number of authorization issued in the last two years to be inspected;
     • to demonstrate that NEG’s functions are strictly in line with the actual environmental laws and that the country needs an efficient implementation of the inspection system, otherwise the Romanian community and Romanian Institutions will lose important opportunities made available by the European Commission and other Member States.

For the above mentioned reasons, concrete commitment to the future actions at political level and at NEG’s high management level, has to be ensured.
We are well aware that only by working together within IMPEL network, we will be able to improve the quality of the environment.

Hence we have great expectation from the future IMPEL projects, such as the one regarding environmental crime prevention, illegal shipment of waste, best practices for inspection in different kind of industrial installations.