Legal Restrictions on the Sale of Forest Land in Romania. Comparative Analysis with French Law

At European level, there is a general tendency of forestry policies to extend and strengthen the individual rights of land owners. Member States, especially those in Central and Eastern Europe, retain some legislative levers, especially regarding the sale of forest land, forest management, exclusion and withdrawal rights. All these measures that some Member States apply with regard to privately owned forests are aimed at avoiding the accentuated fragmentation of forest lands and the excessive exploitation of forests, in order to ensure sustainable development. The right of pre-emption represents one of the measures that Romania keeps in order to be able to achieve these objectives, having a regulation comparable to other Member States, which considered that a control is still required in terms of forest land sales. In France, changes to the Forestry Code in 2012 introduced a right of preemption in favor of the state or nearest neighbors, whereas previously, the owner was free to decide to whom to sell the forest land. The French legislation regarding the right of pre-emption is closest to the Romanian one in this matter. Considering that there is no common EU forestry policy, it is appropriate that in the next period legal professionals analyze all the difficulties that will appear in the application process of different national and regional jurisdictions, as well as the practical way in which their application is likely to lead to achieving the objectives assumed by the legislator. Surely, sooner or later, the Member States will have to agree on a common policy in forestry matters, and the research undertaken during this period will be used for the correct evaluation of the normative framework to be adopted at the Union level.