AGERPRES special correspondent Florin Stefan reports: Romanian MEP Rares Bogdan (PNL - National Liberal Party) and his colleague Dan Nica (PSD - Social Democratic Party) had very critical messages on Wednesday for the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in the plenary of the European Parliament, telling her, among other things, not to touch the money of European farmers and that she is not 'God's messenger'.

The interventions of the head of the Romanian delegation in the European People's Party group, Rares Bogdan, respectively of the head of the Romanian delegation in the S&D group, Dan Nica, took place on the occasion of the EP plenary debate on the topics of the European Council coming on Thursday and Friday.

'On the agenda of tomorrow's Council (Thursday - editor's note) is also Europe's economic resilience. What resilience are we talking about, when the backbone of the Union, farmers, are the victims of a Commission that seems not to understand that the new budget provides ammunition to extremists?' said Bogdan.

Foto: (c) SILVIU MATEI / AGERPRES Photo

He warned that if the 'agricultural plans' - namely those included in the EC proposal for the new multiannual financial framework for the period 2028-2034 - send farmers into unemployment, then 'the next Parliament and, implicitly, the Commission, will look very different'.

'So far, the EPP group has managed to avoid disaster. Without us, the most powerful political group in Parliament, European farmers today would only grow chamomile, mint, basil and raise organic earthworms. But earthworms loosen the soil, some would say. Yes, but it is useless if you do not cultivate that soil and you will not cultivate it if you lose the subsidy because you did not observe the new aberrant environmental standards imposed by the Commission. Some will say that it is nothing. We have meat from Argentina, corn from Brazil, garlic from China, tomatoes from Turkey and wine from Chile and New Zealand,' he outlined a picture of gloomy prospects for European agriculture.

'I know the argument that agriculture brings in only 2% of GDP. But with this logic, perhaps we will wake up that democracy is also expensive and the press too costly,' Rares Bogdan also said.

MEP Dan Nica spoke about Romania's high energy prices, which he said were 'among the highest in the European Union', and accused the EC of lack of actions, which is causing 'huge damage to Romania'.

He said that Romania's economy is suffering greatly because of this, because these energy prices are causing a general increase in prices, 'lack of competitiveness, job losses and a difficult situation'.

Foto: (c) GRIGORE POPESCU / AGERPRES Photo

'Why this? Because Romania's interconnection with the West is being refused, a situation we also encounter for Bulgaria and Greece. The interconnector between Hungary and Austria is still not being built, between Austria and Slovakia, the same, and this lack of action on the part of the European Commission is causing immense damage to Romania and this only leads to an increase in extremism and a situation of dissatisfaction that can only be resolved in a certain way. Decisive measures now, when it is not too late,' demanded Dan Nica. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Gabriela Ionescu; EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)