Romanian govt reaches agreement with farmers protesting at Romanian-Ukrainian border

MOSCOW. Jan 16 (Interfax) - The Romanian Agriculture Ministry has reached an agreement with main agricultural organizations that were protesting and blocking the border with Ukrainian for six days, Ukrainian media said, citing Euractiv.

The Romanian government agreed to meet 13 demands of the protesting farmers, while negotiations would continue to find a compromise on the outstanding issues, Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu said.

The government pledged to fully subsidize all agricultural excises until 2026 and to instantly enact regulations on subsidized interest loans. The government also accepted applications for compensation of the losses incurred from Ukrainian imports. The measures include a clear labeling of grains and other goods and electronic seal monitoring by GPS at the Constanta port.

Marius Mic, a representative of the farmers at three-hour negotiations, said that the agreement did not mean an immediate end of the protests, as the upcoming negotiations with carriers, to last until Thursday, might influence their duration.

As reported, Romanian farmers blocked trucks headed to Ukraine through the Siret checkpoint on January 13. There was no significant line of trucks to Ukraine, and 825 outbound vehicles were registered online in the E-queue system. Meanwhile, cars, buses and pedestrians were cleared as usual.