Bucharest – The European Union’s food security has no connection with the milestones and targets of the Common Fund, declared on Monday the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Florin Barbu, at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting, which is taking place in Brussels.

“I do not believe that the European Union’s food security has anything to do with milestones and targets set in the Common Fund. The Commission’s proposal to integrate the Common Policy within the Common Fund will generate implementation difficulties, on the one hand in processing, but also in the development of farms, in fish farming and aquaculture. Romania was allocated an amount of 61 million euros, compared to 162 million euros allocated in the current financial framework, therefore a substantial reduction with which we cannot agree. We reiterate, in this regard, the need for a separate approach to the common fisheries policy, as well as for the common agricultural policy”, the Romanian official argued during the meeting.

Barbu announced that he rejected the European Commission’s proposal regarding the next multiannual financial plan.

“I conveyed, once again, within the AgriFish Council that Romania rejects the European Commission’s proposal regarding the next multiannual financial plan. The message of Romanian farmers and processors is clear: the common agricultural policy and fisheries policy must benefit, as before, from adequate financial allocations and remain separate from other European funds!”, wrote the Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbu, on Facebook.

He is participating in the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on Monday and Tuesday in Brussels, where topics of major interest for the future of European agriculture and fisheries, with an impact on Romanian farmers and producers, will be discussed.