Pandora’s box: Renewable energy permitting and biodiversity in Romania and Croatia
Briefing | 19 December 2025
The EU has in recent years taken several steps to speed up the deployment of renewable energy, particularly solar and wind.
This briefing uses existing examples from renewables permitting, primarily in Romania and Croatia, to examine the risks and opportunities of specific permitting provisions from RED III and the proposed changes under the Grids Package. It warns that although overall renewable energy development is much-needed, individual projects still require strong environmental scrutiny and cannot be presumed to be low-impact.
It provides recommendations on applying RED III in practice, but cautions that re-opening it is premature. It also finds that the new Grids Package proposals present a higher risk of environmental damage, as well as increasing complexity and duplication of provisions across legislation. Thus, in our view the goal of simplification without compromising environmental protection is not achieved by the proposals and they should be reconsidered.
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