Legal amendments facilitating the development of large RES projects in Romania

An important amendment relevant for all RES stakeholders just entered into force on 10 June 2023. Law no. 166/2023 was passed for the amendment of Law no. 350/2001 on land planning and urbanism, as well as for the completion of the Law no. 50/1991 regarding the authorization of construction works (“Law no. 166/2023”).

Aiming to reduce the bureaucracy associated with the RES permitting procedures, Law no. 166/2023 provides the following amendments:

No more PUZ for RES projects, even if they are located intra-muros (i.e., the exemption previously applicable only to extra-muros projects has now been extended to intra-muros).
It is now expressly allowed to have multiple “investment objectives” regulated under a single urbanism certificate. Despite a single urbanism certificate, multiple building permits (e., one for each investment objective) may be obtained (provided the objectives are delimited through the DTAC).

The practical relevance is that now only one set of approvals must be obtained (on the basis of a single urbanism certificate) for all building permits (as opposed to the previous situation when for each building permit a different set of permits was recommendable to be obtained for each investment objective below 50 ha).

⁠In case the PATJ and PUG expired, the PUZ would be necessary only if its necessity is not expressly excepted by the law (which is the case for the RES projects).

Along the lines set forth at EU level, Romania is taking serious steps towards simplification of RES permitting proceedings which should reflect in the increase of high-capacity PV and wind projects, which are essential to achieve the targets assumed towards the European Union by Romania.