On Monday 20 June in Luxembourg, the Foreign Ministers of the EU27 reaffirmed the EU’s solidarity with the poorest partner countries most vulnerable to the risk of shortages and famine, particularly in Africa.
They also hammered home the point that the EU is not responsible for the global food crisis, but only Russia, in their view (see EUROPE 12974/3).
“The problem comes from the Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain. Millions of tonnes of wheat are being blocked and millions of people will not be able to eat this wheat. This war will therefore have dramatic consequences for the world. We ask Russia to unblock the ports and let these products go”, said the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell.
Recalling that EU sanctions against Russia “do not target food or fertiliser”, he announced that he would “send a letter to all African Foreign Ministers to explain the EU sanctions”. A letter will also be sent by the European Commission to all financial actors explaining what they are entitled to do under the sanctions. This is to avoid disproportionate action through over-compliance that would be detrimental to African countries.
The latter say they are suffering from the disruption of food and fertiliser supplies caused by EU sanctions excluding Russia from the SWIFT interbank payment system, as the President of the African Union, Macky Sall, pointed out at the European Council at the end of May (see EUROPE 12962/2).
“We are open to discuss any concrete problems that there might be in concrete transactions, but this is not to be compared with 20 million tonnes blocked and a 30% tax imposed by Russia on Russian exports”, Mr Borrell said. He said that Russia “is using food as a weapon of war” and that “Russian propaganda” must be countered.
The Ministers said the same thing. “The food insecurity that threatens the world does not come from sanctions, it comes from the war that has been chosen by Russia and therefore we call on Russia to stop playing with famine in the world. All it has to do is stop blockading Ukrainian ports and stop destroying Ukrainian grain infrastructure”, according to the French Minister, Catherine Colonna.
Russia refutes these accusations and asks Ukraine to clear the Black Sea of mines.
German Minister Annalena Baerbock, referring to comments made on Monday by the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said: “In these times of brutal aggression, humanitarian law is non-negotiable”.
According to Irish Minister Simon Coveney, “all EU countries continue to do what they can to ensure that grain can be transported out of Ukraine by EU countries”.
Dutch Minister Wopke Hoekstra stressed the urgency of action: “This is of paramount importance for people in Africa who are at risk not only from soaring food prices, but also from the potential effects of hunger and all the misery that this brings”.
Transporting the grains out of Ukraine “on a large scale is only possible by sea and, as long as we stop being blackmailed by Moscow, we are open to any solution that works”, he added.
In conclusions adopted on Monday on the EU’s response to the food crisis, the EU Council documents this message, which EU leaders are expected to reiterate at the Summit on 23-24 June.
See EUROPE 12973/23 and the draft conclusions dated 20 June: https://aeur.eu/f/27q
The EU Council expressed its “deep concern about the unprecedented level of food insecurity” and reiterated its belief that it was Russian aggression in Ukraine, not EU sanctions, that had significantly worsened the pre-existing food security crisis, with, on top of everything, increasing the risk of social unrest and even riots.
Expressing “solidarity with the most affected partner countries” - the least developed and fragile countries, those dependent on food imports from Ukraine and Russia - the EU Council stressed the “urgent need for a rapid and comprehensive global response”.
The institution stresses the importance of the EU “demonstrating strong solidarity by providing a rapid and comprehensive response based on effective multilateralism” and calls for the strengthening of EU solidarity efforts towards the most vulnerable countries within the Food and Agriculture Resilience Mission (FARM ) initiative, UN initiatives and the Global Alliance for Food Security launched by the G7.
The EU Council calls for a strong, effective and transparent response from the EU, its Member States and its financial institutions (‘Team Europe’) and to intensify their efforts in four areas: - solidarity through emergency relief and support for food affordability in vulnerable countries; - boosting sustainable production, resilience and food systems transformation; - facilitating trade by helping Ukraine export agricultural goods via different land routes and EU ports and by promoting open global trade in food and fertilisers; - effective multilateralism.
These four strands will include short-, medium- and long-term responses, the EU Council says.
The European Commission, the European External Action Service and the Member States are invited to strengthen their engagement with the UN agencies (FAO, WFP and IFAD), to develop targeted response plans in a coordinated manner, by country and by region, and to report regularly to the EU Council on the implementation of this joint response.
See the EU Council conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/27f (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)