The European Commission should monitor the state aid granted by the member states, because if we leave it free we will disrupt the European single market and fair competition within these states, senior official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) Emil Dumitru, said on Friday at a specialist conference.
"Regarding financing, state aid, as you know Romania's budget is built and the budgetary restrictions we have, I don't want to promise more than we can keep our word for. Of course, there is an increase in the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture of 5% from 2025, it is a gratifying thing, but state aid should also be monitored a little by the European Commission," Dumitru said.
According to him, dairy cow business in Romania is facing a crisis in terms of prices, with processors announcing that they will pay less from April for a litre of compliant milk. Instead, Hungary announced on Thursday that it will provide support per tonne of milk sold, without taking the necessary steps in such cases.
"I'll give you a concrete example: Romania and the dairy cow sector are currently facing a crisis in terms of the price that farmers will receive starting with April. The processors notified them that they will receive RON 1.7 - 1.8 per lire of compliant milk, down from RON 2.2 - 2.5 per litre . Basically, it is a decrease that makes our farmers uncompetitive, and they will have to sell below the cost price. Hungary, which has a degree of self-sufficiency of 120%, already announced yesterday on the website of their ministry that it will provide support equivalent to RON 200 per tonne of milk sold, given that, as far as we know, on the Commission's guidelines on state aid lines, such a mechanism must also have a few steps taken: to notify the scheme, to see if there is opposition to it, to make sure there is not an overcompensation on the part of the member state and so on. Because if we leave it free and we do not have a regulated market and we try each state, in relation to our economic potential, to finance with state aid schemes that are more and more different, we will disrupt what the European single market and fair competition within the member states mean."
Dumitru added that Europe must be a fair and just arbiter in this competition on the European single market.
"That is why I believe that we need trust, trust that Europe, through its mechanisms that it has acquired in so many years, will be a fair and just arbiter in the competition in the European single market. I think that maybe - and here I make a mea culpa - we, the central or local public administration, also have to move to another level. It is very clear that, without winning over the private sector in the decision-making role of the state, we will always have subjective political decisions, which are not based on a reality on those we want to support," the official said.
Decision-makers from the agricultural sector, representatives of authorities and experts in economic policies met on Friday at the conference "Romania in the new global context - Economic, agricultural and commercial opportunities and risks", organized by G4Food.ro and Economedia.ro.
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