Premium
Romanian farmers ask Romania leaders, Brussels for support on trade in agricultural products from Ukraine
The Alliance for Agriculture and Cooperation (AAC), in an open letter to the president of Romania, prime minister of the government and the Agriculture minister, calls on the authorities to take all possible steps to persuade the European Commission and its member states to support trade measures for agricultural products from Ukraine and to grant derogation in 2024 from standards 7 and 8 on good agricultural and environmental condition (GAEC), at least with those similar to last year.
The AAC tables the creation and implementation, by 30 April 2024, of a European system to ensure that the destination for all consignments of Ukrainian agricultural products are identified prior to entry into the EU (by transit, normal and/or special/temporary import), weighed on entry and exit, entered into the system, where they are transparently available at any time, for any interested person to ensure that Ukrainian products reach their respective destinations and do not remain en route or are diverted from the original route/destination, even partially in quantity.
Also, another measure forwarded by Alliance members aims to introduce import thresholds (normal and special situations of temporary imports, specific to fairs, exhibitions) for any agricultural commodity subject to trade, based on the annual or quarterly average for the combined years 2021 and 2022. Any products imported above this threshold should be exported outside the EU and therefore approved only for transit through the EU accompanied by electronic seals, tracked in real time by GPS, without unjustified deviations or stops.
Last but not least, Romanian farmers demand alerting to European authorities and automatic activation of the safeguard clause at national level in case of violations of applicable legislation by owners and transporters of agricultural products on the territory of any Member State.
According to the source, similar addresses have been sent to all Romanian and European authorities to take the necessary measures and prevent what will happen if these two major problems are not solved by January 24, "no longer being able to come up with the excuse that they did not know."
"Otherwise, all three (president, prime minister and Agriculture minister) should assume and bear the consequences of intensifying protests in Romania and in the other Member States, which will grow much faster than anyone expects and that the next step is for dissatisfied farmers from most EU Member States to move and block their activity in Brussels," the AAC representatives say.
AAC is a national level organization, formed by Pro Agro National Federation, League of Associations of Agricultural Producers in Romania (LAPAR), National Union of Branch of Cooperatives in the Vegetable Sector (UNCSV) and Farmers' Force Association (AFF).
