Romania's agriculture minister has failed to reach the "discussion table" in Brussels with the demands of the Romanian farmers, MEP Dacian Ciolos said on Tuesday.
"After yesterday asking for resignations in the European Commission, Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu came to Brussels at the expense of the citizens, but today he failed to reach the table of discussions with the other ministers of the council with the demands of the Romanian farmers. Let Mr Ciolacu and Mr Barbu explain what the agriculture minister said in Brussels and what reactions he had from the other ministers at the council table. Let them explain to us who else Minister Barbu met on the sidelines of the council meeting and how he intends to solve the problems raised by Romanian farmers," Ciolos is quoted as saying in a press statement.
He added that, before looking for the data with the amounts for farmers, he proposes to Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu "to call his revolutionary minister of agriculture and clarify these things with him.
In a discussion with farmers in Targu Mures on Monday, Barbu announced that he will demand the resignation of the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski at a meeting of the European ministers of agriculture on Tuesday.
"Romania put through the Council of Ministers the derogations from GAEC [good agricultural and environmental condition] 7 and 8 of the European Union Regulation. The support we had from the 15 states, including Germany and France, regarding the derogations from GAEC 7 and 8 and the non-compliance with the 70%vote given in the Council of Ministers will make me tomorrow, at the council of ministers (...)in my capacity as a minister, to publicly ask the commissioner to resign because he does not respect a vote of 15 states. I'm telling you, I'm going with this mandate at the Council of Ministers, tomorrow, if we fail to solve the GAEC 7 and 8 derogation problem, because one thing wasn't understood and I tried to explain it to the commissioner and to everyone that we are not asking for anything. We are at a time of war, we, five states, are affected, by the conflict that was caused by Russia against Ukraine," said Barbu.