The measures under discussion would ban the import of grain into Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, which borders Ukraine, except for re-export to other EU member states or parts of the world.
The European Commission announced the day before that it would take “preventive measures” regarding Ukrainian agricultural products, but did not specify the measures.
The European Commission has said it will only take action if governments abandon their current measures, which they have not yet agreed to do. It will do so through rarely used powers, and will limit the new guarantees to just a few member states. These countries will also receive €100 million in EU funds to compensate farmers for losses.
Much of the Ukrainian grain entering the EU bloc remained in neighboring countries and reduced prices locally. The EU wants to extend the wartime trade regime with Ukraine when it expires, but the revised version will have stronger provisions to allow the EU to take steps to more quickly “protect” its own market in the future
Brussels will organize convoys of trucks, trains and barges to transport the grain to ports where it can be shipped to countries in need. It would also increase the capacity of the Danube.
Many commercial traders refused to pay for this transport because it is more expensive than the traditional sea trade across the Black Sea.
How this will be funded and organized remains unclear. According to a European official, Spain tried to subsidize a train to transport grain across the continent, but it was much cheaper to import grain from Latin America.
Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have also recently banned the import of Ukrainian agricultural products, while calls for similar measures in Romania are growing due to the damage caused to local farmers by lower prices for Ukrainian products.
AGORA reminds that Bulgaria also banned the import of food. The export of cheap agricultural products from Ukraine has caused mass protests in several European countries. Local farmers blocked the roads because, due to the import of Ukrainian grain, they cannot sell their own agricultural products. See the article.
