The Romanian government has recently approved emergency measures allowing authorities to swiftly shoot or euthanize bears that enter towns and villages, as incidents of human-wildlife conflict escalate.
Under the new draft regulation, intervention teams, including police, gendarmes and specially trained units, will be allowed to use lethal force immediately if a bear is judged to pose a threat to people or property.
We are here to report a serious ongoing emergency in Romania, where the Government has adopted Emergency Ordinance no. 60/2025.
This ordinance allows the immediate culling of brown bears (Ursus arctos), including females with cubs, in urban and peri-urban areas, without the obligation to first apply the non-lethal measures provided by European legislation.
The ordinance does not regulate the protection of the species: it destroys it.
The act in question openly violates:
the Habitat Directive 92/43/EEC (Arts. 12 and 16),
the Bern Convention and the CITES Convention,
as well as Articles 35 and 148 of the Romanian Constitution, which establish the protection of the environment and the primacy of European Union law.
Systemic violation of Article 9 – Derogations without legal condition
Article 9 requires that:
- no satisfactory alternatives exist,
- the conservation status is not compromised,
- decisions are based on scientific evidence,
- each derogation is justified and documented.
OUG 60/2025 violates all these criteria because:
- it removes the obligation to demonstrate the use of non-lethal measures,
- it allows lethal interventions without ecological assessment,
- it abolishes centralized authorization,
- it delegates decisions to local operational teams lacking expertise,
- it eliminates mortality monitoring,
- it relies on outdated (2021–2022) and incomplete data,
- it refuses verification by independent international experts.
It is therefore a structural and permanent violation of Article 9.
Mortality remains in the hands of local authorities without oversight. This is incompatible with the reporting obligations set out in Article 9 (2) of the Convention and the Habitats Directive.
Uncontrolled lethal interventions, combined with habitat loss and lack of monitoring, represent a very high risk for the species.
OUG 60/2025 results in:
• structural violation of Art. 6,
• systemic violation of Art. 9,
• failure to comply with monitoring obligations,
• lack of scientific basis,
• dismantling of the environmental protection system,
• compromise of the species’ conservation status,
• incompatibility with Directive 92/43/EEC (Arts. 12 and 16).
Therefore, the ordinance represents a serious and ongoing violation of Romania’s international obligations.
The problem of brown bears in Romania is serious and complex, but the preventive measures provided by the current legislation have not been properly applied. For example, the use of rubber bullets, allowed by OUG 81/2021, has never been effectively implemented. If the current legislative framework has not been enforced, what justification is there for proposing a new emergency ordinance? In Romania, ordinances are too often layered on top of other ordinances without addressing the real causes of human-bear conflict. What we need is not new decrees, but a transparent and scientific assessment of the real factors that have led to this situation — to protect the lives of humans, wild animals, and agriculture.
We respectfully request that the Ministry organize a real hearing with independent experts — both national and international — also because no one knows the identities of the “experts” mentioned during the debate. Romania must comply with its international obligations to avoid serious consequences.
In Romania, public education on this topic is completely lacking. The bear problem is not new — it has existed since 2004 — yet the same mistakes keep being repeated.
We have send a protest letter to Romanian Government asking direct action, not just to protect those animals that must be safeguarded as endangered species, but also because, in our opinion, many European and national regulations in the field of protection of endangered species and civil management of wild animals have been violated.
