Law no. 205/2011 for amending and supplementing Law no. 255/2010 regarding the expropriation for public utility required for developments of national, county and local interest (the “Law”) was published in the Official Gazette no. 813 of November 17th 011 – Part I, [in Romanian, Legea nr. 205 /2011 pentru modificarea si completarea Legii nr. 255/2010 privind exproprierea pentru cauză de utilitate publica, necesara realizarii unor obiective de interes national, judetean si local].
The following additional works have been declared as being of public utility by the Law:
- works of national interest for the performance, development and production of electricity, natural gas transmission and distribution, natural gas extraction, as well as development, modernization and rehabilitation of the National Transport System of crude oil, gasoline, ethane and condensate;
- mining works of national interest for the exploitation of lignite deposits carried out by the operators under an operating license issued by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business Environment;
- construction, rehabilitation and modernization works of public interest regarding the water supply infrastructure, sewage infrastructure and construction, rehabilitation and modernization works of wastewater treatment plants.
The Law also provides that within 20 (twenty) calendar days as of the date of the notification issued by the expropriator, the owners of the expropriated properties must be present at the expropriator’s headquarters in order to decide the level of the compensation.
The expropriation decision is issued and is effective even if the owners of the expropriated properties do not comply with the abovementioned term, don’t have a valid title or are unknown. The same will apply for unopened succession/unknown successors or in case there is no agreement regarding the level of compensation.