A survey of the Romanian Environmental Fund

The environment protection is considered to be a legitimate domain of the national policies in Romania since 1990, when the former Ministry of Environment appeared. Later on, the Environment Security National Strategy had been elaborated, being considered the first official document establishing the national objectives of that specific field. But the environment policies will be highly developed starting with 2000, when Romania’s preparation to join the European Union started; and this flourishing flow will take place according to European Union’s elaborated strategy regarding the candidate states within Agenda 2000. Due to the complexity of concerns on the EU acquis in the environment security field, Romania obtained a series of transition steps necessary for the high costs. Therefore, our country created the Environment Funds, namely an economic-financial tool designated to sustain and develop the environment protection projects. The present paper aims to present and analyze the way of creating, managing and using this fund from the perspective of the accomplished goals. So, there are brought into play the modalities and income sources of the Romanian Environmental Fund, the contributions paid to the fund and their payers. The environment protection projects financed by this fund, the norms required and the rewarded fields of this domain are also taken into consideration. In the end, there are exposed some measures that should be taken in order to determine a more active involvement of the potential beneficiaries in accessing grants financed by the Environmental Fund.