Romania has still not received the doses the European Commission promised for peste des petits ruminants. Tanczos Barna, the interim agriculture minister, said so on Monday, at the close of his mandate. Assurances, including in his presence, came in early September: the doses would leave "as soon as possible". A month later the promise has not been honoured. His hope is that the shipment arrives this week. Hope is not delivery.

Agerpres and Informat.ro report the same briefing. The authorities say sites, collection and receiving details are ready. When the Commission's vaccine bank sends, vaccination could start the next day or the day after. As of Monday morning the doses were not in the country.

ANSVSA is, in parallel, preparing the purchase of the remaining doses for the national plan. It has not gone further, the minister explained, so as not to mix three to five types from different factories. The delay, in his account, is in the free delivery from the European bank, not in Bucharest. That is the interim minister's position, not a finding by the Commission.

Sheep exports remain blocked until the plan is applied and until Brussels decides. Tanczos said he is waiting, in October, for a note on resumption and for a proposal to change the regulation so vaccinated animals can be exported. On Monday morning he had seen neither. Resumption, he added, can be discussed from the counties that have been vaccinated, after the plan is in practice. That is not a market reopening date.

The vaccination campaign depends on a product that is not yet on the ramps. Anyone pricing October exports is pricing a delivery and a regulation change that have not happened. Until the plane with doses, the animals remain unvaccinated from the promised European stock, and the export ban stays.

The interim minister said he makes no promises: he is leaving the ministry. Monday's figures are waiting, not receipt. Peste des petits ruminants is the disease. The EU-bank vaccine is what is late. The rest, including this week, is hope.

Image: Stefan Jurca, Agriculture Ministry, Bucharest, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons; the MADR building, not a Dobrogea farm.

Sources consulted: Romania has waited more than a month for Brussels PPR vaccines, and exports stay blocked - Informat.ro; Romania has waited more than a month for European Commission vaccines against peste des petits ruminants (minister) - AGERPRES.