The Hungarian-Romanian Joint Environmental Committee held its 9th session in Budapest on Monday and Tuesday of this week. During the two-day series of meetings, the participants reviewed issues relating to conservation, environmental protection and international projects, as well as listening to expert reports on these topics at state secretarial level, with the participation of Co-Chair of the Committee Anne Juganaru in representation of Romania, the Ministry of Rural Development's Minister of State for Environmental Affairs and the session's conducting Chairman Zoltán Illés told Hungarian news agency MTI following the meeting.

The Minister of State said that an excellent relationship had developed between the Hargita County Environmental Protection Agency in Romania and the Körös-Maros National Park Directorate in Hungary within the field of conservation, including the management of aquatic habitats, the maintenance of cross-border territories and the monitoring of specially protected animal species.

The parties reviewed the EU-financed Saker Falcon project, which involves four countries, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary, and the recommendations of the Romanian-Hungarian conference held with the participation of 100 experts in February on the maintenance of cross-border environmental protection areas.

Topics of discussion also included questions related to the proposed gold mine in Rosia Montana and the progress made in the implementation of the Danube Strategy. With relation to the latter, it was stated that water quality must remain a key issue. Hungary is pushing for the comprehensive cleansing of all wastewater that flows into the Danube within the river's catchment area, Minister of State Illés said.

The parties agreed that during the course of the next six months they would jointly search for cross-border projects that the European Union is willing to fund directly in addition to the national funds available, the Minister of State added.

(MTI)