Transporters and farmers take to the street

Romanian transporters and farmers have taken to the street to ask for solutions to their demands.

Leyla Cheamil, 15.01.2024, 02:00

For almost a
week, Romanian transporters and farmers have been staging protests,
unhappy with the higher cost of insurance policies, an increase in
the excise duty on fuel and what they call many legislative problems.
Their protests disrupted traffic in many parts of the country. In
recent days, many roads were blocked or crowded by protesters’
machinery. The transporters’ representatives said their protest was
spontaneous and was not organised by any trade union confederation or
political party.

Talks were held at the finance ministry between the
authorities and the representatives of transporters and farmers, but
no agreement was reached. Finance minister Marcel
Boloş said some of the demands have to do with the tax facilities
Romania pledged to undertake under its National Recovery and
Resilience Plan. He said the demands that have to do with the
European Commission must be presented to the Commission because
otherwise the measures would turn against the protesters, the
minister also said. Protesters also met prime minister Marcel Ciolacu
at the government headquarters, presenting him with a list of over 40
demands and a timetable for talks was established with the
representatives of ministries and relevant institutions. The
government said it was trying to find concrete solutions to the
problems raised by protesters.

A delegation from transporters and
farmers previously went to the agriculture ministry, the transport
ministry and the Authority for Financial Supervision to discuss their
demands, including the cost of insurance policies. This
is in fact the transporters’ biggest problem, as insurance fees
went up significantly from 1st
January. The management of the Authority
for Financial Supervision said
it was working on legislative changes that would lead to a reduction
in fees, especially for drivers
who don’t cause accidents, the suspension of the payment of the
insurance policy in the case of seasonal activities and the
possibility of phased-out payment.

Agriculture minister Florin Barbu
said, referring to the regulations requested by farmers, that some
have already been sent to approval by the Competition Council and are
about to be approved this week by the government. He added that
financing solutions for farmers are available and that various forms
of support are included in the budget, with the animal breeding
sector to receive funding worth 2% of GDP this year. Farmers were given assurances that they would receive the remaining 5% of total
subsidies worth 1.6 billion euros. (CM)