EU Agricultural commissioner Dacian Ciolos says Romanian agriculture suffers because of the frequent changes made on political criteria. Elsewhere in the news, secret waste depot is being built in South-East Romania. Last but not least, Romanian Cantacuzino Institute has been issued a final warning by the Health Ministry to fix the deficiencies on the vaccines production lines by April 15.

EU Agricultural commissioner Romanian Dacian Ciolos says Romanian agriculture suffers because of the frequent changes made on political criteria, Adevarul reads. A few days ago, Ciolos sent a letter to the authorities in Bucharest, asking them to fix the deficiencies in granting European subventions to Romanian farmers. According to him, he met with the situation during 2007 - 2008 as Agriculture minister in Romania. During his mandate for the EU, Ciolos has to prepare the Common Agricultural Policy reform, one of the most delicate and ambitious projects at a community level.

Cilos told Adevarul that the Romanian Payment Agencies, which have been set-up in haste to meet the EU accession standards, improved their performance, but in agriculture the rate of errors addressing farmer's request is still high compared with the EU average 2%. In Romania, Bulgaria and in Greece, the rate is above 10%. Maps need to be updated and the time span between controls in the territory and payments needs to be shorter. In Romania, Ciolos says that managers have to bee designated according to their expertise and management skills before political agenda.

Asked about his strategy for Romania, a country that does not work 30-40% of its agricultural land but imports 70% of its food, Dacian Ciolos says that the farmers can't always sell what they produces because it cannot offer a competitive price. He indicates that the farmer selling the hypermarket 200kg of potatoes is not going to be in the interest of the store, which will resort to importing the food at larger quantities, already packed. He underlined that Romania lacked markets for traditional products, EU style.

Evenimentul Zilei reads secret waste depot in Cernavoda (South-East). City mayor Mariana Mircea accuses the Romanian National Society Nuclearelectrica (SNN) for opening works on a new radioactive nuclear waste depot without requesting the local authorities' green light. Most locals voted against such a project two years ago. But SNN representatives claim that the works are covered by legalities by the Romanian National Commission for the Control of Nuclear Activities (CNCAN), based on a urbanism certificate dating 2001.

According to the mayor, a central manager had allegedly told her that this was the fourth Intermediate Depot for Burnt Fuel (DICA). Local authorities fined the nuclear station and asked for the works to stop until legal conditions were met. The mayor asked the European Association of European Municipalities with Nuclear Utilities and reps are expected this week in Cernavoda. CNCAN is disagreeing with the local authorities, which do not have the power to carry out an inspection inside the nuclear station.

Romanian Cantacuzino Institute has been issued a final warning by the Health Ministry to fix the deficiencies on the vaccines production lines by April 15, Gandul informs. Minister Cseke Attila requested the Cantacuzino Institute manager to present him with a weekly report on the activities of the Romanian vaccine producer. BCG and pandemic vaccines' production need to be restored by mid-April.

The Institute's leadership presented Cseke Attila last night with a plan addressing the production of vaccines. The plan has been agreed with and accepted by the Romanian National Medicine Agency (ANM).It targets water and air installations, monitoring equipment, small infrastructure works and checking production parameters for the two vaccines. Health minister says Romania's pandemic jab stock is consistent and will not affect the population. Cantacuzino Institute saw its authorisation redraw for jabs and vaccines on February 8, when the Good Manufacturing Practices authorisation expired.