By the end of the month, the Environment Ministry will draft an environment security strategy, which provides harsher punishment for crimes against the environment, and which will be sent to the Supreme Defense Council for approval, said Borbely.
The minister nominee asked the MPs for support to quicken the adoption of a bill whereby the illegal cutting of up to one cubic meter of wood from the forest would be a crime; currently, theft of up to five cubic meters is a contravention, a lesser offense. He said 2,900 criminal cases were brought in 2010 against such acts, with fines amounting to RON30 million (EUR6.9 million).
Borbely said the Ministry will adopt the budget of the Environment Fund next week and the car scrappage program would begin in March, for the third consecutive year. The program’s first two editions saw the scrapping of 300,000 old cars, yielding vouchers used to buy 100,000 new cars, including 40,000 made in Romania.
Laszlo Borbely was the Environment Minister in the previous Cabinet, led by Emil Boc.