Madrid accuses Brussels of stinginess

"Spain is importing a little cucumber" headlines La Razón, in a play on words emphasising the “chump change” Spanish farmers are getting back as compensation for losses brought on by the E. coliscare in Germany. Calling for honour to be restored to the humble cucumber, the MEP from the UPyD (Unión, Progreso y Democracia) Party, Francisco Sosa Wagner, is pictured on the front page brandishing one during his speech to the European Parliament.

Following the announcement from the European Commission that European Union farmers will receive 150 million euros in economic assistance, Madrid, however, is not amused. As a consequence of the premature suspicions raised against Spanish cucumbers at the start of the E. coli outbreak in Germany, Spanish farmers alone are taking weekly losses estimated at EUR 200 million. The daily also believes that Germany, “castigated yesterday by Brussels because of its alarmism and incompetence, cannot just slip out the back door."

If the Spanish cucumber is faring badly, the Romanian cucumber is flying high through the crisis; it has even “beaten E. coli and is circulating freely in Europe",writes Romania libera. And while everyone is tossing aside the “farbio” type of cucumber (large, normal in the EU), the little Romanian cucumbers are selling everywhere like sweet cakes.