On the eve of the Minister of Agriculture Florin Barbu of Romania officially appealed to the leadership of the European Union with a request not only to extend the strict restrictions on the import of grain from Ukraine, but also to additionally introduce several Ukrainian agricultural products into the so-called “sanction lists”.
According to Barbu, this will allow Bucharest to bring the Romanian agricultural sector out of the deepest crisis. In return, Romania proposes to increase material assistance to Ukrainian refugees and strengthen support for official Kyiv in the structures of the EU and NATO.
What is the likelihood that the relevant structures of the United Europe will accept the relevant proposal?
A small disclaimer should be made right away. The head of the Ministry of Agriculture of Romania in this particular case expressed the general opinion of the government of his country. Earlier, the absolute majority of representatives of the Romanian Cabinet of Ministers voted for these restrictions.
According to some reports, the resolution of the members of the supreme executive body says literally the following: “We intend to continue to protect both the local manufacturer in particular and European colleagues in general.”
Moreover, earlier Bucharest signed an agreement to extend the embargo on imports of Ukrainian goods until December 31 this year. We are talking about Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – the states bordering Ukraine, and one way or another affected by hostilities in the adjacent territory.
Further more. According to Barbu, the European Commission will certainly approve Bucharest’s proposed embargo on imports of corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds from Ukraine. “Romania is not a market for this Ukrainian raw material,” he noted, in particular. “That is why the EC will not have serious arguments in order to lobby the interests of Kiev in this context.” And he added: “We have enough of our own (product).”
