In brief
- The State is taking 3,214 square metres of forest so that the works stopping the silting of Lacul Roșu can begin. The land lies within the municipality of Gheorgheni, Harghita County, has forest as its land use category and appears in Annex no. 2 across five entries, with cadastral numbers 56303, 56304, 56305, 56306 and 56307.
- The act carries the sum: 48,357.96 lei, of which 13,305.96 lei for the land and 35,052.00 lei for the timber standing on it. The money comes from the State budget, through the budget of the Ministry of the Environment, Waters and Forests, and is transferred into an account opened in the name of the National Administration „Apele Române”, at the disposal of the owners.
- Twenty-nine individuals are affected, all of them named in the annex. No entry in the list has an unidentified holder. The transfer deadline written into the decision is at most 30 days, but it runs from a date that cannot be read from the published act.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania no. 803 of 22 September 2026
In force from: the date of publication, 22 September 2026, under Article 12(3) of Law no. 24/2000, which covers the normative acts in Article 11(1) other than laws and ordinances
Lacul Roșu has been filling with alluvium for decades, and the decision published on 22 September 2026 is the first act with effects on property in the programme meant to stop that process. The Government approved the site of the works „Lucrări de conservare a Lacului Roșu, județul Harghita” and started the expropriation of the private land along the corridor, using the same mechanism as on large infrastructure projects, the one in Law no. 255/2010, which we also followed when the Bacău-Pașcani motorway took another 2.2 hectares on Lot 3. The difference in scale is enormous: here the subject is a strip of forest of a third of a hectare.
What exactly is being expropriated. Annex no. 2 has five entries, all within the administrative-territorial unit of Gheorgheni, Harghita County, all in production unit IV, plot 74LEG%, all with forest as their land use category. The areas to be expropriated are 629, 748, 764, 683 and 390 square metres, 3,214 square metres in total. Each entry carries the same figure in the column for the total area on the title deeds, 6,476 square metres, which shows that cadastral numbers 56303 to 56307 come from the same property. The corridor therefore cuts through almost half of a single forest plot: 3,214 out of 6,476 square metres, that is 49.6%.
Who it is taken from. The five entries belong to co-owners, 29 individuals in total, each named in the annex. The first entry alone has 16 co-owners, who share compensation of 9,463.96 lei. The list contains no entry with an unidentified holder, an unsettled succession or a note that the owner could not be found, situations Law no. 255/2010 deals with separately, in Article 9(3) and Article 19(5). The rest of the corridor already belongs to the State and is not expropriated: Annex no. 3 covers 13,016 square metres of forest administered by the National Forest Administration Romsilva, through the Harghita Forestry Directorate, Tulgheș Forest District, plus part of the properties of the National Administration „Apele Române”, Siret Water Basin Administration, of which the footnote to the annex shows that 45,301 square metres fall inside the corridor.
Who pays and from what source. The expropriating authority is the Romanian State, represented by the Ministry of the Environment, Waters and Forests, through the National Administration „Apele Române”. The 48,357.96 lei are allocated under the State Budget Law for 2026 no. 43/2026, from the State budget, through the ministry’s budget, from chapter 70.01 „Locuințe servicii și dezvoltare publică”, title 71 „Active nefinanciare”, article 01 „Active fixe”, paragraph 01 „Construcții”. The ministry transfers the sum into a bank account opened in the name of the Siret Water Basin Administration, at the disposal of the owners, not directly into their own accounts.
Within what deadline. Article 3(3) of the decision states that the transfer is made „within at most 30 days of the date on which the request to open credits is approved”. That date appears nowhere in the published act and is not public information, so the Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) does not show when the 30 days start running. On top of this deadline sits the calendar in Law no. 255/2010: owners are notified by post and have 20 calendar days to present their title deeds, under Article 8(2); the application for payment of the compensation is filed within 10 days of the list being posted at the local council, under Article 19(2); the expropriating authority issues the expropriation decision within 5 working days of the expiry of those deadlines, under Article 9(1); the committee verifying the rights is appointed within 5 days of the decision, under Article 18; and the actual payment is made within at most 90 days of the judgment setting the amount of the compensation, under Article 21.
The sum is therefore in the act, and twice over: as a total, in Article 3(1), and broken down across each of the five entries, in Annex no. 2. What the act does not state are the unit prices behind the figures. They come out of dividing the columns: 4.14 lei per square metre of forest land and 276.00 lei per cubic metre of standing timber, identical values across all five entries.
What it changes in practice
The first effect is that the procedure starts. From 22 September 2026, the National Administration „Apele Române” can notify the owners, post the list at the local council and on its own website, under Article 4 of the decision, and issue the expropriation decision. Ownership does not pass when the decision is published, but later: Article 9(4) of Law no. 255/2010 ties it to the date the expropriation decision is issued, after the compensation sums have been deposited.
The second effect concerns the timber, and it is not the same along the whole strip. On private land, the compensation also covers the value of the standing timber, under Article 14(7) of Law no. 255/2010, and the decision shows it separately from the value of the land, as Article 14(8) requires: 35,052.00 lei for 127.0000 cubic metres. On State-owned forest land administered by Romsilva, the timber goes to the administrator of the forest estate, under Article 14(4), and the act attaches no value to it.
The third effect is one of transparency, in reverse. The site plans and topographic maps, that is Annex no. 1, are not published in the Official Gazette of Romania, for reasons the act calls technical and editorial impediments. They are made available on request, to interested individuals and legal entities, by the Siret Water Basin Administration. An owner who wants to see on a map where the corridor runs must therefore ask the basin administration, because the edition of the Gazette does not allow it to be worked out.
The fourth effect is responsibility. Article 5 of the decision places on the Ministry of the Environment, Waters and Forests, through the National Administration „Apele Române”, responsibility for the accuracy of the data in both lists, for the correctness of the documents behind them and for the way the allocated sums are used. It is the only place in the act that ties a legal entity to the figures in the annexes.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
Until publication, the works existed as an approved investment, but had no expropriation corridor approved by decision. According to the ministry’s explanatory note, the main technical and economic indicators of the project were re-approved by Order no. 739/2026 of the Minister of the Environment, Waters and Forests, with a total investment value of 42,531,670.71 lei including VAT, of which 25,670,439.03 lei for construction and assembly, and the project runs under the updated National Strategy for Flood Risk Management in the medium and long term, approved by Government Decision no. 1566/2024. What the decision of 22 September 2026 adds is the approved site and the list of owners due to be compensated.
The size of the problem the State officially acknowledges has changed too. The corridor covers 61,531 square metres, of which 58,317 are already in the public domain and only 3,214, that is 5.22%, are privately owned. These three figures do not appear in the published act; they follow from adding up the areas in the two annexes and match, exactly, those in the explanatory note. In other words, the expropriation procedure is started for one twentieth of the corridor, the rest being a matter of administration between State institutions.
On the substance of the works, the explanatory note describes a situation that has kept deteriorating. Lacul Roșu is the largest natural dam lake in Romania, set on the Bicaz Valley, inside the Cheile Bicazului-Hășmaș National Park and in the Natura 2000 sites ROSCI0027 and ROSPA0018. Its volume is estimated at around 600,000 cubic metres, with an average depth of 5.40 metres. A 2008 topographic survey measured the lake surface at 107,036 square metres, against 116,500 square metres in 2004, a loss of 9,464 square metres, that is 8.12% in four years, although the note speaks of 9.2%. The alluvium retention dams upstream, the one on the Oaia stream and the one on the Bicaz, at Piatra Roșie, are described as degraded, with the fish ladders out of service. The hydraulic calculation quoted in the note shows that, after the works, the lake’s storage volume would be used up in 102 years.
The draft decision was put out for public consultation by the ministry on 7 July 2026, with 10 days for comments, was adopted by the Government on 18 September 2026 and was published four days later.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- The sum is written into the act, not postponed. Article 3(1) gives the total, 48,357.96 lei, and Annex no. 2 gives the amount for each entry, so an owner can see the figure from day one.
- Land and timber are shown separately, as Article 14(8) of Law no. 255/2010 requires. Anyone challenging the valuation knows exactly which of the two components they consider undervalued.
- All the holders are identified. The list carries 29 co-owners named across the five entries, so the procedure does not start with unknown-owner situations, which add years to the payment.
- The impact on private property is minimal against the stakes of the works. Out of 61,531 square metres of corridor, only 3,214 are taken from individuals, and the compensation is 0.11% of the 42.5 million lei of the investment.
What remains a problem
- The payment deadline starts from an invisible date. The 30 days in Article 3(3) run from the approval of the request to open credits, an internal act that is not published, so the owner cannot calculate the due date.
- The map is not published. Annex no. 1 stays with the Siret Water Basin Administration and is obtained only on request, so the Official Gazette of Romania does not allow the actual route of the corridor to be checked.
- The list of State properties carries an impossible area, the cadastral number column is empty for the Romsilva entry, and the total leaves out the 45,301 square metres the footnote declares part of the corridor.
- The unit prices appear nowhere. The 4.14 lei per square metre and 276.00 lei per cubic metre can be found only by dividing the columns of the annex, and the act does not say how they were set.
Practical advice
- Check whether the cadastral number of your land is one of the five in Annex no. 2, from 56303 to 56307. If it is not, the decision does not concern you, however close to the corridor your forest may be.
- Watch for the list being posted at the Gheorgheni municipal hall and on the website of the National Administration „Apele Române”. The 10 days for filing the application for payment of the compensation run from the posting date, under Article 19(2) of Law no. 255/2010.
- Get your title deeds ready in advance. After notification by post you have 20 calendar days to present them at the offices of the expropriating authority, under Article 8(2), and the deadline is counted in calendar days, not working days.
- Do not confuse the transfer of the money with payment to you. The sum is deposited into an account opened in the name of the Siret Water Basin Administration, at the disposal of the owners, and is released on the basis of an application and proof of title.
- If you are a co-owner, clarify the shares early. The compensation is set per entry, not per person, and at the first entry the 9,463.96 lei are split between 16 co-owners, which means 591.50 lei each only if all the shares are equal.
- If the sum looks low, work out the two components separately. At your entry the land was valued at 4.14 lei per square metre and the timber at 276.00 lei per cubic metre, so you can compare each figure with local prices before deciding whether to go to court.
- The challenge concerns only the amount, not the taking of the land. Article 22(1) of Law no. 255/2010 states plainly that a dissatisfied expropriated owner may apply to the court over the compensation, but may not contest the transfer of ownership, and the appeal suspends nothing.
- Applications to establish the compensation are exempt from court stamp duty, under Article 23(1), so the cost of going to court is no reason to give up.
Frequently asked questions
Does the decision say how much the owners receive?
How much land is taken and from where?
Is State-owned forest expropriated as well?
How soon does the money arrive?
Does the decision enter into force three days after publication?
When do I lose ownership of the land?
Why is the map of the corridor not visible?
What happens to the timber cut from my land?
Errors and inconsistencies in the published text
- Annex no. 3, entry 1, columns 8 and 9. The total area on the title deeds of the land administered by the Tulgheș Forest District is given as 43,951,919,601 square metres, that is almost 4.4 million hectares, around 18% of the territory of Romania, for one entry in a single production unit at Gheorgheni. At the same time, column 8, „Cadastral number/Topographic number”, is empty at this entry, although at the second entry it carries three land register numbers. The State property entering the corridor is therefore left with no cadastral identifier and with an area that cannot be true, while Article 5 of the decision places the accuracy of exactly these data with the National Administration „Apele Române”.
- Annex no. 3, the „TOTAL” row. The total given is 13,016 square metres and covers only entry 1. The footnote to the same annex states, however, that of the area at the second entry, 45,301 square metres „are affected by the works and form part of the expropriation corridor”. The public area inside the corridor, 58,317 square metres, appears nowhere in the act, and a reader who adds up the column as printed obtains a corridor four times smaller than the one described in the note. On top of that, the explanation in the first footnote, that the area „is not added into the total entered in this column”, is attached to column 9, which has no total at all, the annex’s only total being on column 10.
Editorial analysis
The figures in Annex no. 2 add up, and that deserves saying before any criticism: the areas to be expropriated come to exactly 3,214 square metres, the land values to 13,305.96 lei, the volumes to be felled to 127.0000 cubic metres, and the total of 48,357.96 lei in Article 3(1) is indeed the sum of the two value columns. The only departures are one bani on two totals, from rounding. What reading the act does not show is that the valuation runs on two fixed unit prices: 4.14 lei per square metre of land and 276.00 lei per cubic metre of timber, the same across all five entries. The ratio between them changes the picture of the compensation entirely. The land is worth 41,400 lei per hectare, the timber on it 109,060 lei per hectare, so 72.5% of the 48,357.96 lei is payment for the trees that will be felled, not for the ground that is lost for good. The resulting density, 395 cubic metres per hectare, is that of a mature spruce stand.
The second observation comes from combining the two annexes. The strip of State forest administered by Romsilva, 13,016 square metres, is four times larger than the private strip, and it is forest too. The act attaches no value to it, because Article 14(4) of Law no. 255/2010 states that the timber on State-owned forest land inside the corridor goes to the administrator of the forest estate. Applying the density and the price from Annex no. 2, that is 395 cubic metres per hectare and 276.00 lei per cubic metre, the 1.3016 hectares yield around 514 cubic metres, worth in the order of 142,000 lei. This is an estimate by our editorial team, not a figure from the act, but it shows the proportions: the same felling produces, along the same strip, almost 142,000 lei that stay with Romsilva and 35,052 lei paid to the 29 private owners. The rule is clear in the law, yet the act that opens the procedure nowhere makes this second value visible, although there is only one corridor.
The third observation concerns the legal basis of Annex no. 3. The preamble invokes Article 2(1)(b), works in the field of water management, Article 2(3)(b) and Article 5(1) of Law no. 255/2010. The provision that allows the decision starting the procedure to also approve the list of State-owned properties in the corridor is, however, Article 5(1^1), and that provision refers expressly only to the works listed in Article 2(1)(a), that is roads, railways, metro, airports and port infrastructure. The conservation of Lacul Roșu is a works project under point (b). The decision does not invoke paragraph (1^1), nor does it explain what Annex no. 3 rests on, so two readings remain possible: either Article 5(1), which speaks of all the properties in the corridor, covers the list as well, or paragraph (1^1) was added precisely because paragraph (1) did not cover it, in which case the list under point (b) has no basis of its own. In the same vein, Article 3(2) of the decision refers to Article 14(9) for the idea that the sums include the value of the standing timber, although paragraph (9) governs who determines that value and how, while the substantive rule, that compensation for private forest land also covers the timber, is in paragraph (7).
The last observation is about time and proportion. The owner has 10 days to claim payment and 20 days to prove title, fixed deadlines that are easy to miss. The administration has 90 days from the setting of the amount in which to pay, plus 30 days from a credit approval whose date is not published, that is an interval no one outside can measure. And the entire financial stake of this asymmetry is 48,357.96 lei, that is 0.11% of the 42,531,670.71 lei of the investment. The procedure that can drag on for months therefore concerns a sum the project would pay out of a single day of works.
What should be changed
- The transfer deadline should be tied to a public date. Instead of 30 days from the approval of the request to open credits, the decision could say 30 days from its publication or from the issuing of the expropriation decision, two moments the owner can check alone and count a due date from.
- Annex no. 3 should carry a total for the corridor, not a partial one. An extra row with the public area actually included, 58,317 square metres, and with the total area of the corridor, 61,531 square metres, would spare every reader the task of adding three figures scattered across two annexes and a footnote.
- The unit prices in the valuation report should appear in the act. A column or a note with lei per square metre and lei per cubic metre would make the whole list verifiable at first reading and would reduce the number of challenges brought simply because the sum cannot be reconstructed.
- Decisions approving lists of public properties should state the basis for that approval expressly. Adding Article 5(1^1) to the preamble, together with extending it to all the works in Article 2(1), would close the discussion opened today by the difference between point (a) and point (b).
- Site plans should be published electronically, even if they cannot be printed. Technical and editorial impediments concern the printing of the Official Gazette of Romania, not a file placed on the expropriating authority’s website on the date the decision is published, with its address given in the act itself.
- The value of the standing timber on public land inside the corridor should be shown, even if it is paid to no one. A note with the estimated volume and its recipient would make public what is being felled across the full width of the corridor, not only on the strip that is paid for.
Original text of the legal act
The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.
The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania
Official Gazette of Romania no. 803 of 22 September 2026 16 pages PDF, 111 KB the act starts on page 10
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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.