VILNIUS, August 5. /TASS/. Lithuania has asked the European Commission to grant it €32 mln to compensate losses it suffered due to Russian embargo on food products from the EU.
Lithuania’s Agriculture Minister Virginija Baltraitiene sent a letter with this request to the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan.
"The situation in the dairy sector is very complicated. With the loss of the Russian market, we are trying to shift to other countries, but it is a long process," - she said.
According to the minister, milk producers are facing bankruptcy, and the whole sector of the economy may disappear.
"Lithuania is an exporter of dairy products. The share of exports in total volume of production is 60%," - Baltraitiene said.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Baltic republic, the income of milk producers for the first six months of this year fell 30% year-on-year due to Russia’s food embargo.
"The requested €32 million will help us partially compensate the losses," - Baltraitiene said.
On August 6, 2014, President Vladimir Putin signed decree N 560 "Executive Order on special economic measures to protect Russia’s security" for one year starting from August 6, 2015".
The decree imposed a package of countermeasures in response to the sanctions introduced by the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union and Norway over Moscow’s stance on developments in neighboring Ukraine. Russia’s countermeasures involved a one-year ban on the import of vegetables and fruit, dairy and meat products from these countries.
On June 24, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to extend Russia’s counter sanctions for one year from August 6, 2015.