On Tuesday 3 June, the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) is due to vote on the extension of the June 2022 agreement between the European Union and Ukraine on the transport of goods by road.
The rapporteur, Siegbert Frank Droese (ENS, German), proposed rejecting this extension on Thursday 13 March. He wanted to limit the quantities of Ukrainian products exported, particularly agricultural products such as wheat, echoing the protests of Polish farmers, who have complained of a loss of income as a resulting from the oversupply of Ukrainian wheat (see EUROPE 13603/16).
However, the representatives of six other political groups, Tomas Tobé (EPP, Swedish), Vivien Costanzo (S&D, German), Roberts Zīle (ECR, Latvian), Urmas Paet (Renew Europe, Estonian), Virginijus Sinkevičius (Greens/EFA, Lithuanian) and Merja Kyllönen (The Left, Finnish), proposed approving the agreement. The justification provided in their draft amendment dated Tuesday 22 April was as follows: “The Agreement has proven to be essential for Ukraine, supporting the Ukrainian society and economy by allowing Union and Ukrainian road haulage operators to carry out freight transport operations to and through the Ukrainian territory to the Union and vice-versa, thereby also supporting the Solidarity Lanes for Ukraine”.
They added that “its effects remain positive also for the European Union, in particular for the Union’s exports to Ukraine” and that “the conditions justifying the conclusion of the Agreement continue to prevail”.
Read the draft amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/h58 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)