On Tuesday 30 May, following the ‘Agriculture’ Council, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, deemed it necessary to extend “at least” until the end of October the restrictions imposed by five EU Member States on Ukrainian cereal imports, despite opposition from Kyiv and resistance from some other EU countries.
The lifting of customs duties in May 2022 boosted the influx of Ukrainian agricultural products into the EU, and in mid-April, several neighbouring countries (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria) unilaterally banned imports of cereals from Ukraine in response to the saturation of silos on their territory and the collapse of local prices.
At the end of April, the Commission concluded an agreement with these four countries and Romania providing for safeguard measures until 5 June to enable them to ban the sale of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower on their soil, provided that they do not prevent the transit of these cereals to other countries. Only Hungary has maintained a unilateral ban.
“We need to extend (these restrictions) at least until the end of October and, ideally, until the end of the year, after the harvest, otherwise we will have a huge problem”, said Mr Wojciechowski. However, he pointed out that the Commission had not yet decided on its position.
“The problem is that there is now more grain in the reserves of the neighbouring states than in Ukraine. We need to extend the temporary import restrictions to improve the situation”, added the Commissioner, calling for logistical resources to be stepped up in order to clear cereal stocks.
These restrictions were denounced by the Ukrainian Minister of Agriculture, Mykola Solskyi, who was in Brussels on Tuesday: “We believe that extending them is not the right course of action, and we are opposed to it”, he said, arguing that it would play into Moscow’s hands (see EUROPE 13190/16).
The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, had already condemned “severe, even cruel, protectionist measures”.
The restrictions are also being contested by 13 EU countries, including France and Germany, which in mid-May expressed their “serious concerns” about this “differential treatment within the internal market” and called for “further discussions” on the €100 million in aid proposed by the Commission for farmers in the five countries affected.
Mr Wojciechowski said he hoped that the €100 million in aid (mobilised using the crisis reserve) would be released quickly. He confirmed that he wanted to mobilise the remainder of the crisis reserve (€250 million) for the 22 other EU countries to address sectoral crises (milk in the Baltic States, apples in Belgium, etc.) and the effects of drought and flooding in the countries of southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, etc.) (see EUROPE 13190/5).
“I hope that I have convinced the Member States that (this €100 million in aid) is fair, that the criteria chosen are equitable, that there are no longer any obstacles to voting for this aid, and that it will be transferred to farmers as quickly as possible”, emphasised Janusz Wojciechowski. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)