The EU will provide further financial support to farmers in certain eastern European countries that are impacted by exports from Ukraine.
Farmers and governments in a number of countries bordering or near Ukraine are concerned that, in efforts to ensure agri-produce is not trapped in Ukraine due to the ongoing war with Russia, the resulting influx of Ukrainian imports is reducing prices for their own farmers.
These countries are Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Romania.
Yesterday (Wednesday, April 19), European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis and European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski met with representatives of those five countries.
The commissioners presented “comprehensive proposals” to address the concerns expressed by these member states “regarding the deterioration in the situation of union producers for specific products”.
The package proposed by the commissioners would see a second tranche of agricultural financial supports to affected farmers; “exceptional” safeguard measures on key products; and measures to facilitate the transit of Ukrainian grain exports via the ‘solidary lanes’.
These solidarity lanes were established by agreement between the EU, Ukraine, and Moldova (which is not an EU member, and borders both Ukraine and Romania).
The solidarity lanes were put in place in May in order to safely get agri-food produce, especially grain, out of Ukraine.
The supports proposed by the European Commission yesterday are conditional on these five member states lifting unilateral restrictions they have put in place on the movement of Ukrainian goods.
In a joint statement, Commissioners Dombrovskis and Wojciechowski said: “We underlined the importance of rapidly following a common EU approach, rather than unilateral solutions to avoid multiple bans…which put the internal market at risk.
“The commission takes note of the views presented by participants. We agreed to continue political consultations in the coming days in view of a swift solution,” the statement added.
The proposed package from the commission comes after a bilateral agreement was struck between Poland and Ukraine to allow grain from the latter country to pass through the territory of the former to other destinations.
However, a ban on Ukrainian grain being unloaded and sold in Poland will remain in place.
Over the weekend, the government of Poland took the decision to suspend grain imports from Ukraine until the end of June, amid growing unease from the Polish farming community, which claims that agri-produce moving from Ukraine into eastern Europe is driving down local prices for produce.