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Romania's Minister of the Environment Tanczos Barna said on Friday in Sfantu Gheorghe that the pressures to reduce livestock in order to reduce methane and ammonia emissions are very high at the level of the European Union, but Romania will negotiate in Brussels, "till the end" for the European measures to affect as few farmers as possible.
He told a news conference that 150 livestock units (LSUs) for livestock farms is unacceptable for Romania, and the problem will most likely be solved on March 16 in Brussels.
"Today, yesterday, tomorrow and in a week from now on we are discussing and will discuss the new rules that are being implemented at the level of the European Union on chicken, turkey, pig and cattle farms, because there is a lot of pressure from environmental organisations on farmers and new rules will be introduced for farms to account for, report and reduce emissions of methane, nitrogen, carbon, including on animal farms. The dispute is fierce. And for half an hour now I've been trying to find out the position of Germany, the position of France, on beef, on pork, on poultry. So it is a dispute that will probably be settled on March 16 (...) I will fly directly to Brussels to participate in that council meeting, where the main issue that is on the agenda is exactly this topic, the new rules that will apply to large, small farms and that will bring new rules for the implementation of state-of-the-art technologies to reduce nitrogen and methane emissions. The level, the size of the farm from which these obligations of monitoring, reporting, reduction, implementation of latest generation technologies will be mandatory. Two weeks ago, the European Commission proposed 150 LSUs, which is an unacceptable level for Romania. We have argued from the very beginning that these new rules should kick in somewhere over 350 LSUs, even 450 LSUs in the case of pig and cattle farms. The Ministry of Agriculture and Mr Daea still support the total elimination of cattle from these rules (...) Probably the discussions on April 16 will be completed somewhere at a level of 280-300 LSUs for chicken, turkey, laying hen farms and somewhere over 350, I hope, or 450 on pig and cattle farms," said Tanczos.
He added that the negotiations carried out so far by Romania on this topic have gone well.
"The challenges are getting bigger and bigger for farmers as well (...) We try and do everything possible so that Romanian farmers are not affected by the new rules imposed by Brussels (...) Today, Romania already has a system of authorisation of farms, regardless of size, which does not exist in all other European countries. So, the way in which the amount of nitrogen, the amount of manure, the amount of methane, implicitly, affects the environment is checked when farmers file for environmental authorisations (... ) Such rules do not apply in all the countries of the European Union, in all the member states, but the new rules will be generally valid for all of them. (...) So far, together with the Romanian representation in Brussels, we have successfully conducted the discussions, negotiations, together with the Foreign Ministry as well and we are on a good path, let's see how the whole dispute will end in Brussels," he said.
Tanczos voiced hope that it will be possible to find that balance allowing us to eat healthy without affecting the environment. AGERPRES
