On Monday 23 October, in Luxembourg, the European Commission and the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council expressed optimism about the EU’s ability to resolve the remaining problems preventing Ukrainian cereal exports to destination countries.
Poland, Hungary and Slovakia are holding talks with the EU and Ukraine to lift the unilateral bans on Ukrainian cereal imports maintained by these three EU countries close to Ukraine.
“We continue to work as part of the Joint Coordination Platform. We are working very intensively on a technical and political level with the Member States, Ukraine and Moldova to resolve the logistical problems and significantly increase the capacity of the solidarity channels”, declared the European Commission at the ‘Agriculture’ Council, which took stock of the market situation in light of the effects of the war in Ukraine triggered by Russia.
“Bilateral talks (to obtain the lifting of restrictions) are continuing, and the Coordination Platform is continuing to work. Ukraine would like to control exports through a system of licences issued only to authorised companies. This will only be possible if the negotiations are successful”, declared Janusz Wojciechowski, the Commissioner for Agriculture, at Monday’s press conference in Luxembourg. “We don’t know when the unilateral measures can be lifted, but we can see that things are progressing well”, added the Commissioner, who added that the Ukrainian minister, Mykola Solskyi, who took part in the Council meeting, had confirmed this information.
Luis Planas, the Spanish Minister for Agriculture, supported the Commissioner’s comments and welcomed the progress. “Dialogue between Ukraine and neighbouring countries is progressing well”, noted Mr Planas.
At the Council meeting, the Commission pointed out that one of the challenges remains the higher transport costs for alternative routes. “We are therefore jointly pursuing our efforts to improve the operation of the solidarity lanes”, said the institution.
Between May 2022 and September 2023, these lanes enabled Ukraine to export 102 million tonnes of goods, including 57.4 million tonnes of agricultural products including 52.2 million tonnes of cereals, oilseeds and other related products.
According to the Commission, the main objective is to increase the capacity of existing routes further, reduce their cost and develop other alternatives so that Ukraine can export its products to its traditional markets, which are essential for global food security.
A number of ministers expressed concern about current geopolitical events in the Middle East, their potential impact and the uncertainties they may cause.
Many ministers have welcomed the idea of increasing the flexibility of the common agricultural policy (CAP) to respond to different crises. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)