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MEP Ciolos: Renew Europe suggests EC tracking mechanism of Ukrainian grains entering the EU
The proposal of the Renew Europe political group to the European Commission is to have a control of Ukrainian grains entering the EU without capping amounts, but tracking access to the market, MEP Dacian Ciolos told a briefing with Romanian journalists on Tuesday in Strasbourg.
He said that all that is known at the moment is that Ukrainian grains cannot stop on the territory of five border countries, Romania included.
"Without this monitoring in place, the grains can end up in, I don't know, the Czech Republic or Germany, and from there they can return to Poland or Romania, because the market is free and without a tracking mechanism in place, they can get anywhere," the Renew MEP said.
Also, Ciolos argued that the import-export certificate drawn up at the source could also include the mention of the phytosanitary control, in order to disprove allegations "that they do not comply with the rules."
Another measure proposed by his political group is a closer collaboration of the European Commission with international organizations that deal with the collection and distribution of humanitarian aid, such as the World Food Program (WFP).
Ciolos also advocates a coordination between the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture, and its Trade, Humanitarian Aid, and Budget Directorates-General, "a coordination, a relationship for data and information to circulate, which is what I also reproached those at home in Romania because, from my point of view, collecting data from the field is primarily the responsibility of the member states."
Ciolos said that, from his point of view, the solidarity lanes for the land transport of grains, which fall under the competence of the current European Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean, do not work and should be made more efficient. Such a corridor "means that you no longer do any border checks, because all the checks are done at the loading site and at destination, but this does not happen. When we look at the border we still see these loaded trucks" waiting in line, he said.
Last but not least, the MEP pointed out that there will be major problems with transport capacities in the second half of the current year, when the new crop is harvested, either because the means of transport are "already contracted on the Ukraine line, or because the price has increased a lot."