MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) debated, on Monday 19 February, the extension of the autonomous measures for Ukraine and Moldova. The European Commission has proposed to renew the liberalisation of trade with these two countries for a further year (until June 2025) with strengthened safeguard mechanisms, particularly in the case of Ukraine (see EUROPE 13340/7).
However, they are not unanimous: most MEPs from countries negatively affected by Ukrainian agricultural imports are not satisfied with the proposed automatic safeguard mechanism. On the contrary, some MEPs, such as the Greens/EFA, stated that these provisions go too far and hinder support for the Ukrainian economy.
Sandra Kalniete (EPP, Latvian), the rapporteur on the regulation concerning autonomous measures towards Ukraine, claims that the Commission’s proposal is balanced. She therefore called on her colleagues not to table amendments against her.
However, Iuliu Winkler (EPP, Romanian), a member of the same group, said that this would be difficult because the proposal is not that balanced. He mentioned two points that he believed needed to be discussed. “The reference period of 2022 and 2023 for import volumes not to be exceeded is the wrong reference. It should be 2021 and 2022”, he said, echoing numerous criticisms from European farming organisations (see EUROPE 13352/5).
Like some of his other colleagues, he also questioned the choice of the three products subject to automatic safeguarding (poultry, eggs and sugar). Grains should be included in the list subject to automatic safeguarding, according to several MEPs.
Ukrainian grains are no longer flooding Eastern European countries now that exports via the Black Sea have resumed, according to Léon Delvaux of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade.
In this context, many MEPs have criticised the timetable imposed by the European Commission for this proposal for a regulation. “We’re under time pressure, because the Commission made its proposal very late. I don’t find that comprehensible”, regretted INTA Committee Chair Bernd Lange (S&D, German).
In contrast, the proposal to extend the liberalisation of trade with Moldova was not debated. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)