An incorrect Pole and an inept bureaucrat undermine the interests and efforts of Romanian farmers

By RBJ
The war in Ukraine affects not only the country’s economic budget, burdened by military purchases, but also the progress efforts of Romanian farmers.
As is well known, Romania is one of the main routes for the export of Ukrainian grains, given that the sea ports of this state were closed by the Russian army.
More than Poland, Romania has opened, through its geographical position, the transport routes for Ukrainian grains. Approximately 60% of Ukrainian grains transited Romanian territory, by land or water, to be exported. The geographical position of Poland did not allow and does not allow the use of Polish routes for the export of Ukrainian grain as established by the Istanbul Agreement.
Unfortunately, this situation brought damages to the Romanian farmers, whose products for export were unfairly competed by the Ukrainian goods.
For this reason, the issue of compensating farmers from the countries affected by the EC was raised.
Only that an incorrect Pole, Janusz Czesław Wojciechowski, commissioner for agriculture within the EC, and a Romanian bureaucrat, a certain Irimescu, divided several amounts of European money arbitrarily.
The amount of 10 million euros allocated to Romania to support farmers affected by the influx of grain from Ukraine is ridiculous and we asked the Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, to re-analyze the calculation formula, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Petre Daea, said on Tuesday.
“I argued at the Council, in the discussion with the European Commissioner for Agriculture, that the amount is small for Romania. It is a ridiculous amount. He explained to us the constraints he has, justifying that the Commission’s decision was to grant only 56 million euro out of the total crisis reserve of 450 million euro. A very small amount for the needs of the six countries, but of which only three have received. Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have not received a single cent. For now, these are the amounts. But I have requested to revise the calculation formula and it was agreed that it will be analyzed together with the Romanian experts established since September 26, 2022, led by Achim Irimescu from the Permanent Representation of Romania to the European Union”, stated Petre Daea.
The MADR official claims that this was the proposal discussed on Monday, March 20, in Brussels, at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting, a proposal that will be submitted to the 27 member states for approval during a technical meeting on March 30, 2023.
He stated that he was the first minister in the Council of Ministers who raised the issue of activating the crisis reserve at the meeting he had with the Commissioner for Agriculture on September 26. “I explained to him what are the consequences of the war in Ukraine regarding the grains imported into Romania, seriously affecting the Romanian farmers who were unable to capitalize on the production obtained and maintaining the grain in stock and the lack of liquidity for the execution of specific works. Monthly, from October 2022 I raised this issue at the Council of Ministers. In January, at the Council meeting, together with Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, I presented information on the situation of farmers in countries close to the conflict. The Commissioner ensured that he would activate the crisis reserve, presenting in particular the extremely difficult situation in Romania,” Petre Daea pointed out.
The European Commission announced on Monday that it wants to use a crisis reserve to support farmers in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, in a total amount of 56.3 million euros, financed from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reserve, to compensate for “losses economic effects due to the increase in grain and oilseed imports” from Ukraine “and limiting the impact of market imbalances”.
Thus, it was proposed to allocate an amount of 29.5 million euros to Poland, 16.75 million euros to Bulgaria, and 10.05 million euros to Romania. In addition, the EC authorizes the three countries to double these amounts through state aid.