The chairman of the Save Romania Union (USR), Dacian Ciolos demands that Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca get involved in the National Strategic Plan for Agriculture.
On Monday, during a press conference, Ciolos underlined that National Strategic Plan would bring to Romania 22 billion euros, through the Common Agricultural Policy, in the coming years. He mentioned that the issues related to agriculture should be discussed at the level of the Government, not only of the ministry, including in view of the fact that Romania exports raw materials and imports expensive finished products.
"I urge the Prime Minister to focus on the National Strategic Plan for Agriculture. It is about 22 billion euros for the next few years and (...) I expect him to have an eye also on what is happening in Ministry of Agriculture. We somehow have the impression that the problems related to agriculture are only of the farmers and they are sectoral problems and the minister solves them. That is not what the minister is solving, especially when we have a minister who let it go to his head and who intends to revolutionize everything in a few weeks' time," said the USR leader.
Although the member states are not directly penalized for failing to meet the deadline of 31 December 2021 to submit the National Strategic Plan for Agriculture to the European Commission, Ciolos stressed, those at risk of being affected are the beneficiaries of the funds.
"There is a risk of delays in implementing these support measures in the coming months and years," he said.
On Monday, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Adrian Chesnoiu, started the consultations for drawing up the National Strategic Plan 2023-2027, the meeting being attended by over 80 participants, both experts from the relevant ministry and representatives of farmers' associations, local action groups and agricultural distributors, the ministry said, Agerpres informs.
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