Romanian far-right leader George Simion has criticised the deal Romania struck with Ukraine on Friday to double the volume of grain transit from Ukraine, claiming the decision was either an act of treason or plain stupid.
On Friday, Shmyhal and Ciocalu signed a political declaration stating that Ukraine and Romania would work together to increase Kyiv’s grain export through Romania.
While Shmyhal presented the implications of Russia’s decision to withdraw from the Black Sea Grain Initiative on global food security and Ukraine, Ciocalu assured his Ukrainian counterpart that his country would continue being involved in facilitating Ukrainian grain exports to international markets.
”We will focus our efforts on developing the already existing capacities and corridors – primarily the Sulina Canal and Constanta Port – to reach our ambitious target, i.e. doubling the Ukrainian grain transit volume through Romania”, Ciolacu told a press conference.
Romania intends to double the amount of transited grain from two to four million tons per month, said Ciolacu without specifying a timeframe.
However, the decision was heavily criticised by Simion, who also pointed to Ukraine’s neighbouring states putting a stop to imports.
”I, for one, can’t imagine: either you’re stupid, or you’re a traitor if you do something like that. All the surrounding countries: Slovakia, Bulgaria, Poland stop (the imports), we double them … At least we should develop our infrastructure on this occasion: railway, ports and so on”, Simion said on Saturday.
In a letter dated 21 July and seen by Reuters, Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry asked EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis for the Commission to provide financial aid for the extra transport cost of using alternate EU routes known as “Solidarity Lanes”.
Sources told Reuters that the European Commission has no immediate money in the budget and no clear way to help finance the extra transport costs that Ukrainian grain exports will face with the end of the Black Sea deal.
(Cătălina Mihai | EURACTIV.ro)
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