Minister of Entrepreneurship and Tourism Daniel Cadariu on Wednesday said -- regarding the situation of grain imports from Ukraine -- that his ministry's Trade Policy Department has only technical powers to support the relevant ministries, adding that the Ministry of Agriculture is the maker of agricultural policy.
"At our ministry, there is a department of commercial policies; it's just that the powers of the department regard only supporting the relevant ministries. Romania's agricultural policy is made by the Ministry of Agriculture. So, not by us; we support from a technical point of view our representative office in Brussels. (...) On April 11, we notified the Ministry of Agriculture to let them know the ministry's position, what we should do. We actually received on April 12 a notice that did not say anything on the requested subject. I made public the content of the notice, which is posted on the website of the ministry," Cadariu told Parliament when asked about grain imports from Ukraine.
He went on to say that the department of the ministry only provides technical support, adding that "agricultural policy, decisions related to Romania's relationship with the EU on agricultural policy are made by the relevant ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
Asked if there is a shift of blame between the ministries, the minister said: "At the moment I would refrain from making such assessments."
"We don't shift anything. The moment we receive a clear request from a relevant ministry, we take the necessary actions alongside our permanent representation at the EU. These are our duties and nothing more," Cadariu said.
In a press release on Tuesday, the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Tourism announced that on April 11 it asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ( MADR), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) and the Presidential Administration for points of view on the extension of the provisions of the European Regulation on temporary trade-liberalisation measures supplementing trade concessions applicable to products from Ukraine, but did not receive information regarding the impact of this regulation on Romania, nor any other information to substantiate the aspects highlighted by MADR, told Agerpres.