Financiarul

 

Romanian Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Dacian Ciolos, at a meeting of the Council of the Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers held in Brussels, insisted that the size of the direct payments made to the new European Union members should be evened out as fast as possible with those made to the old EU members, the ministry said in a release to Rompres on July 16.

 

The EU ministers, who "reviewed the health" of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), debated several topics such as the transfer of a percentage of the subsidies for the direct payments to rural development so as to meet the new challenges (climate changes, bio-energy, water resource management and bio-diversity); the market management levers (market intervention, private storage); the management of milk quotas and the accompanying measures following their elimination in 2015.

 

The Romanian minister made a request related to forestry. Romania believes that an integral approach within the European Union is needed, i.e. an approach to the complex issues targeting this sector, by the unification of the current relevant structures on the level of the European Commission. Since areas of interest from several fields – such as farming, environment, energy -are to be found in the forestry sector, it means that the forestry policy should be more coherent. To this effect, Ciolos proposed the establishment of a structure within the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development, the release said.

 

Ciolos met European Commissioner for agriculture and rural development Mariann Fischer Boel on the sidelines of the Brussels Council.
Romania also requested to be given the possibility to use the rural development funds after 2009 as well, the ministry said.