As the European Commission debated, on Wednesday 13 September, ways of facilitating the flow of Ukrainian cereal exports, Janusz Wojciechowski, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, had defended, the day before at the European Parliament, his ideas in favour of extending restrictions on cereal imports.
He reiterated his controversial proposal to help the Ukrainians transport grain.
Russia’s criminal aggression against Ukraine had led to “upheavals on world food markets”, said the Commissioner, who added that Russia was using food as a weapon and attacking Ukrainian infrastructures and logistics centres for grain exports.
Extension of restrictions. Mr Wojciechowski considered that the bans on imports of Ukrainian cereals into the five EU countries close to Ukraine had stabilised the market and had not limited exports of these Ukrainian cereals via the ‘solidarity lanes’. Hence the need to extend these restrictions, according to the Commissioner. In addition, these safeguards have helped to stabilise prices and put an end to speculation. “Let’s not allow all these efforts to go to waste, we need to review our attitude towards these Ukrainian exports. Otherwise, there will be chaos and a return to unilateral decisions” warned the Commissioner, referring to Poland’s announcements to this effect (see EUROPE 13248/28).
Since April, the EU has authorised five Member States (Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) to ban the marketing of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower on their territory, provided that they do not prevent the transit of these products to other countries.
Several MEPs supported this extension of the restrictions, including Daniel Buda (EPP, Romanian) and Beata Szydło (ECR, Polish), who says that “we will not be able to open our borders” to Ukrainian cereals. Marek Belka (S&D, Polish) criticised the Commissioner for “waking up too late”. Dacian Cioloș (Renew Europe, Romanian), meanwhile, advised the Commission to appoint a person mandated to monitor Ukrainian cereal exports transiting through the EU and to take decisions to reduce the impact on local markets in EU countries bordering Ukraine.
Solidarity Lanes. Between May 2022 and July 2023, Ukraine exported 44.4 million tonnes of cereals and oilseeds via the territories of these five countries, the Commissioner added. Before the ban, volumes were 34.8 million tonnes. The restrictions have therefore been effective in stabilising the markets in these five EU Member States. “They have also increased Ukraine’s exports through these solidarity lanes, which is the main argument in favour of extending these preventive measures. That’s what I’ve always stood for”, added the Commissioner.
Between May 2022 and July 2023, the solidarity lanes enabled Ukraine to export almost 88 million tonnes of goods worth €35 billion. Of this, 35 million tonnes were cereals, oilseeds and by-products. Janusz Wojciechowski said that by 2023/2024, Ukraine would be exporting 54 million tonnes of cereals.
Help with transit. Transit, via Poland for example, does not pose an infrastructure problem, but rather a cost problem, according to the Commissioner. This is why Mr Wojciechowski made the proposal, discussed within the coordination platform, to compensate for the additional costs of Ukrainian wheat exports. According to Kyiv’s calculations, these costs are between €20 and €30 per tonne (see EUROPE 13240/2). These additional costs are also necessary to diversify transit routes by using Adriatic or Baltic ports.
The Commissioner pointed out that logistics costs on the Danube route had fallen by 50% between July 2022 and March 2023. “We hope that these efforts will enable us to have a capacity of 3 million tonnes per month and up to 4 million tonnes per month by the end of 2023”, he added. He also recalled the efforts to create a better flow of traffic between Romania and Moldavia and Ukraine, and to develop the routes leading to the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic Sea. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)