The investments related to circular economy and to integrated management systems amounted to “good billions”, but the results, although they show some progress, are below the expectations, said the Minister of the Environment, Mircea Fechet.

“Billions of euros have been invested in Romania. If we look at all the investments related to the circular economy, the integrated waste management systems, all the sums attracted from pre-accession funds, from the environmental SOP, more recently from POIM, and which we propose to spend in the next financial year as well, we note that well billions of euros have been spent and the results, although they show some progress, are below the expectations we had, at least at the time when I wrote all those projects, all those requests for funding,” said Fechet, according to Agerpres.

The minister emphasized that, with regard to the circular economy, instead of recovering the gap compared to most countries in the European Union, “we are stuck at a shameful percentage.”

“If we look at everything that means circular economy, if we look at all the figures from the last years, we will notice that the results do not necessarily scare us, but the trend scares us, because instead of recovering a lot of the gap that we have today compared to most other member states, we are stuck at a shameful percentage, whether we are talking about separate collection, whether we are talking about recycling, or whether we are talking about any other issues. (…) I think there is a need for reform deep in relation to the way we understand what the circular economy means,” said Mircea Fechet.

He reminded that, within the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, there are sums allocated to the circular economy, such as those for collection centers with voluntary agreement, and the offers submitted to the auction for these will be opened on April 1.

Also, the minister added, the other large centers are in a “more advanced or less advanced” execution process and the tender for the digitized islands, those separate collection points that are to be made available to local authorities, is close to being awarded.

“And, last but not least, a financing line that I consider very important, it is generically called “recycling factories”. We are putting 220 million euros to the test through the Environment Fund Administration to those economic operators who are going to carry out recycling activities or similar to recycling and treatment activities,” said Mircea Fechet.