The money allocated through the National Recovery and Resilience Program (PNRR) on the environmental component will be able to contribute to the closure of the infringement procedures that Romania is subject of, announced the Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests, Barna Tanczos.

“In terms of waste, in principle, yes, the money from PNRR will contribute if we make those voluntary agreement centers or digitalized smart islands due to which we will increase the degree of collection and increase the degree of selective collection. This is one of the thorny issues and can be solved only by building new infrastructure. From this point of view, in terms of waste, PNRR can certainly contribute to the closure of infringement proceedings,” the Minister of Environment said, at a debate within the Commission for Environment and Ecological Balance of the Chamber of Deputies.

Regarding the forest area, the head of the Environment said that “without a doubt” the digitalization component on SUMAL 2 will have a major contribution.

“In the forests, the digitalization component contributes without a doubt to this and it is a commitment of Romania to the European Commission, a commitment of mine to Commissioner Sinkevicius (European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius) making these developments on SUMAL 2, so that the systems are connected to the cameras, to the satellite images and to increase the degree of monitoring and to reduce the criminality,” he added, according to Agerpres.

Also on the water component, the Minister of Environment pointed out that localities with more than 10,000 inhabitants already have infringement proceedings due to the low degree of connection and wastewater management issues.

“Here, the AFM-administered component helps reduce the risk of infringement, and small localities, which have not been funded so far, benefit for the first time from targeted funding, those with less than 2,000 equivalent inhabitants, also there we can prevent a infringement on the lack of wastewater management infrastructure,” concluded the Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests, Barna Tanczos.