Climate policies must be accompanied by concrete support measures so that green transition doesn't become an unbearable burden for farmers and for the food security of the European Union, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Florin-Ionut Barbu said.
"Our farmers cannot be put in a position of bearing alone the cost of the green transition. Rising fertiliser prices, caused by the implementation of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), directly affect the competitiveness of European agriculture and, implicitly, food security. Romania supports a balanced approach: environmental protection must go hand in hand with protecting farmers and maintaining production capacity within the European Union," the Romanian Minister of Agriculture said on Monday within the Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH) meeting in Brussels.
According to a release of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) sent to AGERPRES on Tuesday, Romania supported Austria's proposal to suspend the application of the CBAM for fertilisers and to extend this suspension to all types of fertilisers used in agriculture, not just ammonia and urea, taking into account the significant rise in production costs and the loss of competitiveness for European farmers.
Barbu supported Romania's standpoint on the need to protect European farmers in the context of the CBAM implementation, which directly affects fertiliser prices.
In this context, Romania called for the identification of European compensation and support mechanisms to help farmers cope with rising costs and continue investing in the modernisation and decarbonisation of agriculture.
"The position expressed by Minister Florin Barbu is in line with the consistent approach of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to defend the interests of Romanian and European farmers and to promote European policies that ensure, simultaneously, sustainability, competitiveness and food security," the MADR release added.
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