* The Ministry of Agriculture has no more money left to support the sector
* Agriculture needs over 500 million Euros * Farmers are told to borrow from banks
* "I have no hopes that the budget will be increased upon the first budgetary revision", says Dumitru
The coffers of the Ministry of Agriculture is empty, Mihail Dumitru the ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. And it will remain empty in the near future. "We have no hopes that we will get more money", said Mihail Dumitru, when asked if the budget of the Ministry might be increased on the first revision of the budget in this year.
The Minister of Agriculture explained: "First of all, there was no budget revision. First of all, the Law of Fiscal Responsibility has significantly restricted the possibility budgetary revisions. Concerning the first budgetary revision, I have no idea how the first budgetary revision will look because I haven"t seen any of its drafts. I have no hopes that we will get more funding".
The statements were made at the end of a conference organized by the officials of the European Commission in Romania, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, during which was also discussed Romania"s contribution to the future reform of the Joint Agricultural Policy.
* The agricultural sector needs 500 million Euros. Farmers are told to borrow from banks
The agricultural sector needs over 500 million Euros in funding for the six state aid schemes which were negotiated with the EU, as the treasury of the Ministry is empty.
Mihail Dumitru said: "We have six types of support that we have worked on and negotiated with the European Commission, and we need around 500 million Euros, approximately 2 billion lei. This is money that we don"t have at the moment and that we will only have next year".
Under these circumstances, the minister suggests that farm