Negotiations between the European Commission and five EU countries regarding agricultural imports from Ukraine ended in failure
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The third round of negotiations between the Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, and the Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, with the Ministers of Agriculture of five countries, which are fighting against the excessive import of agricultural products from Ukraine, ended in failure.
This is reported by RMF FM.
After the failure of the meeting with the ministers, the negotiations will continue at the technical level.
The European Commission called for a “constructive and evidence-based approach”. The idea is that countries should provide evidence in the form of statistics to justify their claims and allow the EC to consider them.
In a rather strict form, the EC informed the five ministers of agriculture that the support package for farmers (100 million euros from the anti-crisis reserve, consent to the inclusion of certain agricultural products in the list of prohibited imports from Ukraine and assistance in the export of grain) depends on the lifting of unilateral bans on imports.
Dombrovskis, in response to calls to expand the list of prohibited goods for import, expressed readiness to start protective investigations. Such investigations may result in the suspension of imports.
As noted, the European Commission is starting to get annoyed by the fact that more and more products are being added to the list. As reported, she agreed to ban the import of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower, which was already an unprecedented decision.
This was followed by a letter from the Ministers of Agriculture of Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary from demanding to include nine more products in the list. The next day, Poland also added fruit and applesauce to the list. On Monday, Agriculture Secretary Robert Telus announced that he wants to add another item – apple juice.
The European Commission once again emphasized the need to quickly develop a common EU approach and avoid unilateral decisions and bans that threaten the integrity of the internal market.
The unilateral blockade of the import of agricultural products from Ukraine by Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria was criticized by most EU countries. However, there is an understanding of the problem, but the EU countries want decisions to be made by the community, not unilaterally.
The European Commission wants to conclude the negotiations as soon as possible, as this dispute serves the interests of Russia. However, there is no certainty that Poland wants this.
About ten days ago, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria temporarily limited the import of grain from Ukraine. These countries justified such steps, among other things, by the problems of their own farmers due to favorable competition from Ukrainian products.
Last week, the European Commission offered Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary 100 million euros of support for them to lift the ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine.
Read more in the article: Grain compromise: how Brussels wants to resolve the crisis with Ukrainian exports to the EU. A detailed analysis of the causes of this crisis can be found in our video on why friendly Poland hit Ukrainian exports and who will help Ukraine.
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