Romania’s commitment at European Union integration

Abstract

Environmental protection is one of the horizontal policies of the European
Union these days. Its main aim is to design and apply all policies of the Community and
its member states. The integrated approach should be linked to the general integration
strategies of the last decade of the previous century which were lowly adjusted to the
pattern of sustainable development.
The Maastricht Treaty raises environmental policy to the “rank†of Community
policy and the Amsterdam Treaty includes the principle of sustainable development to
the main Community objectives. It also regulates the application of the Environmental
Integration Principle to sectorial policies. The European Union has elaborated a
complex system of horizontal Community Laws by designing six environment action
programs. They occur in the following fields: air quality, waste management, water
quality, landscape protection, industrial pollution and risk management, dangerous
chemical substances and genetically modified organisms, noise, civil protection, nuclear
safety and radioprotection. EU has changed the sectorial approach into an integrated
one, has developed principles and action and has taken important steps in international
cooperation on environment safety.
Currently, the European Union runs the stages of the Sixth Action Programme
“Environment 2010-2015: Our future, our choice†which focuses on four main areas of
action: climate changes, environment and health, nature and bio-diversity and
management of natural resources.
When adhering to the European Union, according to Negotiation Chapter 22,
Romania assumed to fulfill the European regulations and to allocate financial amounts in order to apply coherent measures in the field of Environmental protection. As full member of the European Union, Romania defined its own consistent policies in order to follow the strategic direction and priorities of the European Commission. While the Community Acquis was already adopted, further actions and environmental activities aim to reach the targets for each negotiated transition period.