The European Commission has recently rejected Romania’s arguments for promoting the law that imposes on big retailers to get 51% of their food from local producers, reports local Profit.ro.

The next step would be opening the infringement procedure against Romania, which involves sanctioning an EU member state that doesn’t comply with EU directives. The infringement usually comes with substantial fines.

The law that forces big supermarket and hypermarket chains to get over half of the food they sell from local suppliers was voted by the parliament on June 8 and signed by President Klaus Iohannis on July 11. The law should enter into force in January 2017, at the latest. The Government should have already elaborated the rules for implementing this law.

editor@romania-insider.com