The Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and representatives of the main agricultural organizations reached an agreement on January 15 to meet several demands of farmers who have blocked the border with Ukraine.
As Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu said, the agreement covers 13 farmers' demands. At the same time, talks are continuing to find a compromise on the unresolved demands, Euroctiv reported.
The government has committed to fully subsidizing all agricultural excise taxes by 2026 and immediately implementing subsidized loan provisions.
According to Marius Miku, one of the farmers' representatives at the talks, the agreement signed does not mean an immediate end to the protests as their duration could be affected by the upcoming negotiations with transport workers, which last until Thursday.
Miku added that it is important that the government allows a waiver of mandatory crop rotation regulations and 31 percent safety area per farm until January 4.
The government has also responded to demands for compensation for damage caused by imports from Ukraine. The measures include clear labeling of grain and other goods and electronic monitoring of seals using GPS in the port of Constanta.
Minister Barbu replied that Romania wanted to impose an import duty on Ukrainian grain imports.
The previous evening, the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture announced that the responsible ministers of Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary had written a joint letter to the European Commission calling for the imposition of import duties on Ukrainian grain due to alleged unfair competition.
In the letter cited by the Hungarian ministry, the five eastern EU countries call on the European Commission to take action against cheaper agricultural products from Ukraine, which they say are eating up their export markets.
Source: Ukragroconsult (Ukraine)