Iohannis on the farmers’ compensation scandal. “The EC should have taken into account that we made huge sacrifices”

President Klaus Iohannis criticized the European Commission on Thursday for the level of compensation granted to Romanian farmers affected by the influx of grain from Ukraine, pointing out that Romania made “immense sacrifices” to facilitate the export of grain from the neighboring country, which is at war with Russia. Klaus Iohannis states that the compensation calculation formula is non-negotiable and says that “it is regrettable that such ultra-bureaucratic approaches call into question the good faith of the Commission”.

“The Ministry of Agriculture delivers data to the European Commission. The European Commission uses a calculation formula without negotiating with anyone and grants certain aids. The data provided by the ministry may not have been thought through deeply. But I haven’t seen them and can’t comment. It is, on the other hand, very strange that nothing is negotiated in the European Commission on these matters, but formulas are used. These things cannot be solved – in my opinion – accounting. These are complicated matters, we have to take into account, for example, or at least the European Commission should have taken into account the fact that we have made huge sacrifices to facilitate the export of grain from Ukraine to world markets. They didn’t do it, I don’t know why they didn’t do it, but we will also find out… it is regrettable that such ultra-bureaucratic approaches call into question the good faith of the Commission,” said Klaus Iohannis on Thursday, before the European Council.

Romania submitted to the European Commission, on time and “quickly”, the data requested in order to compensate the Romanian farmers affected by the influx of grain from Ukraine, and there was no negotiation regarding the establishment of the amounts due from the reserve fund, the minister said Agriculture, Petre Daea.

The European Commission decided to grant Poland 29.5 million euros, to Hungary, although it has a loss of 110 million, it granted nothing, to Romania, out of 45.84 million, it distributed 10.05 million, to Slovakia nothing, and to Bulgaria 16, 75 million euros, the Minister of Agriculture also pointed out, who considered as “ridiculous” the amount of 10 million euros allocated to Romania to support farmers affected by the influx of grain from Ukraine.