The Mining Law Review

Before 1989, when the Communist regime fell, mineral resources in Romania were exploited by state-owned companies. Although these exploitations were advertised as big economic successes of the Communist governments, in reality, most of them were using outdated technology and some caused significant pollution in the mining perimeters. Moreover, in the context of Romania’s negotiations to join the European Union, some of the mining exploitations had to be shut down as they were far from being compliant with European environmental standards. Romanian governments became aware that some of the mining exploitations could not be further operated without capital injections necessary for financing the acquisition of new technology and environmental investments. In the last few years, the Romanian government has tried (unsuccessfully) to revitalise several mining projects in its effort to boost the Romanian industry and create workplaces.

Also recently, public authorities have shown an increasing interest in the development of several dormant mining projects. Though the government seems to have realised that the existing legal framework needs to be improved in order to speed up the process of authorising mining projects, there is as yet no political consent on improving the legal environment in this field. It is, however, expected that in the near future efforts will be made to improve the legal framework so as to offer incentives to investors willing to resume mining activities in Romania.

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