EU agriculture ministers meeting in the AGRIFISH council have not managed to unblock 100 million euros worth of aid for farmers affected by Ukraine’s export of cheap grain. Romania is one of the five countries that may benefit from the aid and it stands to receive around EUR 30 million. The European commissioner for agriculture Ianusz Wojciechowski gave assurances that the aid will be unblocked and the situation monitored. He said he was not in favour of using the EU budget to buy Ukrainian grain to be supplied to the world food programme because the cost would be three times that of the cereals themselves. He believes the money would be better used, in the long term, to improve the infrastructure, for example that of Romania, and said he would have talks in this regard with the European commissioner for transport and infrastructure Adina Vălean.
