After a three-day visit to Romania with other MEPs to assess the situation in the country’s agricultural sector, Jérémy Decerle (Renew Europe, French) said on Thursday 22 June that “large tonnages of Ukrainian grain are arriving in Romania and destabilising the market”.
Alongside Dacian Cioloș (Renew Europe, Romanian) and others, he met with the Romanian grain sector, which is “worried about the future and has already been negatively affected by the situation”, he explained.
One of the reasons for the problems caused by the influx of Ukrainian grain, despite European measures (a safeguard clause temporarily banning imports of grain from Ukraine into five EU countries close to Ukraine), is speculation, which is driving down market prices.
Romanian farmers see European measures as insufficient “band-aids”. They are therefore calling for concrete measures and long-term solutions, explained the MEP.
Among the possible actions, Mr Decerle alluded to the use of contracts, to prevent grain leaving Ukraine without contracts being signed with the countries to which the goods are destined, EU management of stocks and the redistribution of grain to the various countries.
In July 2022, the Renew Europe group presented measures to guarantee food security during the war in Ukraine (see EUROPE 12988/24), which have not yet been taken up by the European Commission.
Jérémy Decerle expressed the view that structural problems cannot be solved solely by mobilising European money from the agricultural crisis reserve.
The European Commission has proposed to pay €100 million for farmers in EU countries bordering Ukraine and €330 million for the 22 other EU countries, using all the 2023 appropriations in the crisis reserve (see EUROPE 13200/20). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)