A group of European NGOs filed a complaint Tuesday with the European Commission against the Romanian government | Sean Gallup/Getty Images Environmental activists take their forest fight against Romania to Brussels NGOs accuse Romania of improperly managing old-growth forests; the forest management company defends its practices.

A group of European NGOs filed a complaint Tuesday with the European Commission against the Romanian government over what they say is illegal logging in the country's old growth and primeval forests.

The move comes as the EU ramps up its battle against deforestation both inside the EU and elsewhere around the world.

The organizations — Germany's EuroNatur, Romania's Agent Green, and the U.K.'s ClientEarth — allege that Romsilva, Romania’s state forestry company, "is conducting logging operations within protected Natura 2000 areas without proper analysis of the impact on these unique sites," in violation of EU nature protection rules.

ClientEarth lawyer Ewelina Tylec-Bakalarz said in a statement that systematic logging in Natura 2000 sites without any effective assessment of its impact "is a clear violation of EU law." The NGOs said that in some cases, environmental impact assessments are conducted "years after logging gets underway."

The government in Bucharest has heard similar complaints from international organizations in the past, and insists that its forestry practices don't break EU rules.

Agent Green late last year warned that Romanian forests experienced "shocking" rates of illegal logging.

According to EuroNatur, Romania has between 100,000 hectares to 200,000 hectares of virgin forest, calling it "the biggest share of this almost extinct ecosystem in the EU."

Tylec-Bakalarz called on Brussels to react "before damage of these unique ecosystems becomes irreversible.”

A similar complaint against Poland's logging in the country's Białowieża forest by ClientEarth and other NGOs three years ago led to an intervention by the European Commission and a logging ban from the Court of Justice of the EU which ultimately found Warsaw had breached the EU's nature rules.

Romsilva in July published a detailed map of the 22 national and natural parks under its administration, stressing that activities there were aimed at "forest care and management."

However, this isn't the first time that the agency has come under fire for its forestry practices.

Agent Green late last year warned that Romanian forests experienced "shocking" rates of illegal logging with more lumber being cut than what was allowed under forest management plans, and called for stricter enforcement of rules, as well as a ban on harvesting in national parks.

In July, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee noted "concern" about logging in buffer areas adjoining protected old-growth beech forests. The committee called on authorities to ensure that "logging is, and remains, strictly prohibited within the [protected] property, and that no logging operations are allowed in the buffer zones of the property if they could negatively impact natural processes."

In response, Gheorghe Mihailescu, Romsilva's general director, invited UNESCO specialists "to evaluate how the rules of compliance are respected."

Tuesday's complaint raises the issue to the level of the European Commission — where concerns about deforestation have taken on new urgency following criticism of forestry practices in Brazil's Amazon rain forest.

The Commission in July published a strategy to tackle deforestation; the European Parliament is due to discuss the issue at a plenary session later this month.

Carmen Avram, a newly elected Romanian MEP from the Socialists and Democrats, wants Brussels to crack down on illegal logging in Romania, according to a question she sent to the Commission in July.

It's personal for her. A documentary producer for Romanian TV, she said she "was dealing a lot with reports of criminal deforestation in Romania so my very first concern as an MEP was to raise the issue in the European Parliament."

She said the country's forest authority has now asked her to visit her home country to "see with my own eyes that now everything looks great. Well, I can agree we might finally have a more effective reforestation program, but 'great' is not the word I would use."