Summer marked by protests in Romania

Road freight and passenger carriers and animal breeders in Romania have gone on strike.

Leyla Cheamil, 23.08.2016, 13:29

Road freight and passenger carriers and animal breeders in Romania, who are discontented with the high cost of compulsory vehicle insurance and the delayed payment of subsides for the year 2015, respectively, say they have run out of patience. As a token of protest, road freight and passenger carriers have announced they will run at low speed at least one hour per day on the main roads across Romania. They are discontented mainly because car insurance premiums have doubled from 2,000 to more than 4,000 Euros within a year. Consequently, road carriers in Romania report high costs and can no longer be competitive at a European level. The line associations call on the government to freeze car insurance premiums and have warned that if measures are not taken urgently, they might completely halt their activity. The secretary general of the National Union of Road Carriers, Radu Dinescu, has more:

“The low-speed circulation of vehicles will most likely have a significant impact in the areas with already heavy traffic. And Im referring to the roads leading to the seaside, to the mountains and the beltline of Bucharest. Furthermore, a big rally is scheduled for September 15, in Bucharest. Those involved are ready to stop protesting only when the problem is solved.

In another move, animal breeders have taken to the street and continue to protest in front of the Government headquarters. Some of them have been on hunger strike for days now. They say they will give up protests only when they receive the subsides for 2015 in their entirety. The Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture has admitted it has failed to comply with the pledges made to the farmers, that is to pay 95% of the volume of subsidies by mid-August. The director of the aforementioned agency, Nicolae Horumbă says farmers are also to be blamed.

“We have been notified by our representatives at county level that they repeatedly invite farmers at the headquarters of the agency, but farmers either do not come or do not have the necessary documents with them. Therefore, our employees have to wait for 10 days, the time span stipulated in the notification, to make a decision on the respective case. In their turn, farmers ask themselves why things are difficult with the payment schemes. The approval entails a process of administrative verification of payment requests, which are not always completely and correctly formulated.

In turn, farmers contradict the director of the agency, saying they have compiled the requests correctly and submitted them in due time alongside the necessary documents to receive subsidises for 2015, but the government hasnt respected its promise. The Director of the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture claims that 1.9 billion of the 2.1 billion Euros for subsidies have already been paid to the farmers, with the agency employees working intensely to be able to pay the difference in the near future.