April 20 (SeeNews) - The Romanian government said on Thursday that it approved an EU emergency support measure granting 10.05 million euro ($11.02 million) to local cereal farmers affected by increased grain imports from Ukraine.
The government is also matching the EU aid with 10.05 million euro from the state budget, through the agriculture ministry, it said in a press release.
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The EU aid is part of a larger 56.3 million euro support measure for cereal and oilseed farmers in Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, the government said in a press release.
The total amount of 20.1 million euro will be disbursed to Romanian farmers to compensate for expenses derived from storing their wheat production from the 2022 harvest in their own or third-party storage facilities. Grants will be distributed across the entire country until September 30.
The amount given to each beneficiary is determined by multiplying the unit amount of the grant in lei per tonne by the amount of wheat harvested in 2022 and in storage on February 1, 2023, Romania’s agriculture ministry said in a separate press release.
According to the EU emergency support measure approved in April, Bulgaria and Poland were also beneficiaries of grants of up to 16.75 million euro and 29.5 million euro, respectively. Each country can grant additional national aid in support of the scheme’s measures up to a maximum of 100% of the corresponding amount.
Earlier in the day, European Commission officials said, as seen in a video from a press briefing, that the Commission proposes to grant a further 100 million euro in aid to farmers affected by agri-food imports from Ukraine, in response to a call for intervention by five EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) - Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
($=0.912 euro)