Representatives of a number of agricultural associations are threatening with massive protest actions against incompetent policy, conducted by Prime Minister Pavel Filip in the field of agriculture.

 

Alexandru Slusari, Chairman of the National Union of Agricultural Producers' Associations UniAgroProtect said at the Tuesday’s news conference at Infotag that the “competent team”, as Mr. Filip is often calling his Government, has not repaid compensations for 2015 to farmers so far.

 

“The arrears reached 120 million lei. While this year no payments have been conducted at all, though it is October already, the end of the year is approaching. How can one regard such activities of the Government? Only as a failure”, he said.

 

According to Slusari, the crisis situation in the branch was aggravated by many-year expectations of peasants, who hope that finally the authorities will hear them.

 

“There were many talks and promises. But things are right where they started. I have no trust in this Government and we regard protests as the only weapon against it. The question is: before or after the elections? We will decide in which form this will happen at the council of organizations, where we will discuss and identify our next steps”, he said.

 

Former agriculture minister Valeriu Cosarciuc, Chairman of the National Farmers Federation (NFF) also maintains that the development of the agricultural branch is not a priority for Filip Government.

 

He pointed at the fact that previous cabinets of ministers signed with the EU the ENPARD [European Neighborhood Program in Agriculture and Rural Development], which implies the allocation of funds.

 

“However, the Government did nothing for fulfilling these conditions. This is why we have no access to ENPARD funds. A lot has been said about this, but very little has been done. The Government is reluctant to develop agriculture. Let us take the Polish credit worth 100 million euros. It is provided at profitable conditions, with grace period and delays in payments. But the Government is not interested in this, it has its own goals”, said the NFF leader.

 

He added that over all the years of his work in the field he never saw such a pressure and neglecting attitude to farmers and peasants.

 

“Agrarians were left face to face with their problems. However, in the conditions of chronic compensation arrears over last years, problems in the field are only growing in number. We think that only protests, like expression of civil disobedience may affect these authorities”, Cosarciuc said.