The Commission services discussed the action plan for the conservation of the brown bear in Romania with the Romanian authorities in July 2025. EU funding is used to implement some of the actions of the action plan, including electric fences, video cameras, bear relocation cages and tranquilising equipment.
Romania is planning a follow-up project that would cover purchasing 'smart bins' in areas with large bear populations and completing the works on a facility for temporarily keeping bears in Timișu de Jos in the Carpathians.
The genetic monitoring of Romania's bear population is still ongoing and the final results, along with the methodology of the monitoring, will only be published by the end of 2025.
Romania is home to a stable brown bear population which is in a favourable conservation status and represents around 40% of Europe's total.
The brown bear is a strictly protected species listed in Annex IV of the Habitats Directive[1]. Thus, the killing of bear specimens is prohibited under Article 12 of the directive.
However, Member States may derogate from the provisions of this Article for reasons such as public health and safety, provided that the conditions set in Article 16 are fulfilled. The national authorities, including judicial ones, are primarily responsible for the correct implementation of derogations.