Romania not to Ban Import of Grain from Ukraine

Romania will not impose a ban on the import of grain from Ukraine, as it intends to strictly comply with European standards. This was stated by the Romanian official, Dan Carbunaru, commenting on the demand of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), a party to the ruling coalition, to temporarily stop the import of Ukrainian agricultural products. “Romania has decided to strictly comply with the relevant European norms,” he said at a press conference following the cabinet session, “and we have seen <...> arguments according to which a country whose farmers receive annually 3 billion euros of direct payments or investment from Europe, of course, has an extra motive to comply with these rules.” During an online meeting with the ministers of agriculture of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia on Wednesday, Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis said that the unilateral measures [to ban the import of Ukrainian grains] taken by four European states are illegal, and demanded to lift them. Thus, as Romanian government spokesperson said, these states were given the opportunity to reconsider their decisions in exchange for the European Commission 100 million-euro package for farmers, in addition to the already announced first package of 56 million euro. Dan Carbunaru said that the government session also approved national budget assistance to Romanian farmers affected by grain imports from Ukraine amounting to 10 million euros in addition to the already allocated 10 million euros. “These amounts are added to the support package that Romanian agriculture receives as a result of European funding, which reaches an average of 3 billion euros per year,” he precised.