Brussels, 10/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is not thinking of introducing any targeted measure to help road hauliers affected by the Russian ban in the import of EU agricultural produce, announced Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc, speaking at the European Parliament plenary session on Monday 9 March.
She was responding to a question put by MEP Michael Cramer (Greens/EFA, Germany), who chairs the Parliamentary transport committee. Cramer had drawn attention to the fact that, while the EU had put in place compensation for fruit and vegetable producers hit by the Russian embargo, nothing was being proposed for the hauliers who transport the fruit and vegetables to Russia. “For road hauliers specialising in the transport of foodstuffs who have invested in fleets of refrigerated lorries, the Russian embargo means they are losing most of their contracts”, he said (our translation).
Bulc replied that trade with Russia was regulated by direct bilateral contracts between Russia and the member states of the EU and she added that her services did not have precise information on the scale of the problem: “At this moment, the Commission does not have any evidence of market disruption that goes beyond individual cases” (our translation). She therefore encouraged the member states most affected to put their own aid schemes in place.
Several MEPs, including Claudia Tapardel (S&D, Romania), Gesine Meissner (ALDE, Germany) and Elzbieta Katarzyna Lukacijewska (EPP, Poland) called for a European response on this matter. (Jean Comte)