President Iohannis: No deepening but maintainance works done on Bystroe Canal.
President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday that maintenance work, not deepening, had been carried out on the Bystroe Canal, pointing out that works other than maintenance could not be carried out without the involvement of international entities working to protect the Danube Delta and without Romania, told Agerpres.
"There is a long-standing Ukrainian intention to use the Bystroe Canal in a reasonable way to get out to the Black Sea. Whether or not work will be done remains to be seen. So far, it has all been a myth, no deepening work has been done, the latest measurements show that maintenance work has been done. If other than maintenance works are to be done, which are absolutely fine, they cannot be done without involving the international entities that deal with the protection of the Danube Delta and without Romania. So I don't think there is a discussion here and, at the very least, the discussion that there has been has proved to be counterproductive. However, it is true that the Ukrainians want more traffic on the Danube and here we can still make some institutional improvements, but also in the way the Sulina is navigated to help them," said the head of state before the European Council meeting.
He also said that Romania will continue to facilitate the transit of Ukrainian grain.
"I think it is, meanwhile, a known fact that most of the Ukrainian grain exports go through Romania, through the logistic routes in Romania, essentially through the port of Constanta. But it is reached there by rail, by road, and part, it is true, is exported from Ukraine directly on the Danube, via the Bystroe Canal and the Black Sea. We have facilitated this export, we have exempted them from taxes, we continue to support them and we believe it is the right thing to do. It is also the right thing to do for Ukraine, which it is in our interest to support, because this is where a significant part of the Ukrainian state's income comes from. On the other hand, it is fair to the recipient, there are many countries that are quite poor and depend on this grain coming from Ukraine. So we will further facilitate transit. Of course we have looked for and found ways to ensure that domestic producers are not disadvantaged. And there are two issues here: we have negotiated with the Commission and you probably know that a significant aid, I think of 100 million, has been released just the other day for producers who have had losses due to legislative syncopes, to put it that way. These issues will be corrected," said President Iohannis.
President Klaus Iohannis is attending the European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday.
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