Bill to protect Bucharest’s surrounding forests gets unanimous approval from Senate committees

The draft bill aiming to protect the forests in Ilfov, the county surrounding Bucharest, received unanimous approval from three expert committees of the Romanian Senate on June 20. Next, the legislation will go to the Senate for debates and a vote.

Initially submitted to the Parliament by MPs Diana Buzoianu (USR) and Oana Cambera (REPER) under the umbrella of the Together for the Green Belt civic platform, the legislation also gained the support of other politicians, including former environment minister Tanczos Barna (UDMR), current environment minister Mircea Fechet (PNL), justice minister and former Senate president Alina Gorghiu (PNL), MP Cristian Niculescu Țâgârlaș (PNL), and senators Liviu Lucian Mazilu (PSD), Laura Moagher (PSD) and Robert Cazanciuc (PSD), among others.

To come into force, the bill has to pass both chambers of the Parliament, namely the Senate and then the Chamber of Deputies, and be signed into law by president Klaus Iohannis.

“Good news! Unanimity in the parliamentary committees for the bill on protecting the forests in Ilfov, the keystone of the future Bucharest-Ilfov green belt. All three committees of the Senate - environmental, forests and legal, gave a favorable report to the legislative initiative submitted to the Parliament by the Together for the Green Belt civic platform. No votes against, no abstentions, in any of the committees,” announced Alex Găvan, high-altitude climber, environmentalist and founder of the civic platform.

He also launched a call for the leaders of all parliamentary groups, urging them to “mobilize their colleagues so that they vote for clean air and the future.”

Introduced on April 12 as part of the civic platform Together for the Green Belt, the bill is the central pillar of a much-needed project to safeguard the trees that still encircle Bucharest and create a green belt around the city.

The platform was launched by the Alex Găvan Foundation, a local non-profit developing various projects dedicated to the environment, education, sports, and social issues. In addition, dozens of NGOs, civic groups and public figures also joined the civic initiative, backing the effort to keep the forests around Bucharest open to the people and free from commercial logging and urban development.

Another main pillar of the Together for the Green Belt platform is the public petition asking the politicians and authorities to take action. The initiators request the adoption and signing into law of the bill to protect the forests of Ilfov, an integrated plan of the Bucharest City Hall and the Ilfov County Council to combat pollution, the inclusion of the Green Belt in the Bucharest-Ilfov Regional Development Plan 2021-2027, an assumed timetable for the implementation of the Green Belt, and the inclusion of the topic related to Bucharest's air pollution in the CSAT-Supreme Council of Defense agenda. The online petition can be read and backed by signature