Posted on April, 3, 2023 at 12:26 am
Poland and three other countries neighbouring Ukraine, as well as Bulgaria, have demanded restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports in a joint letter sent to the European Commission (EC) on Friday.
The letter was an initiative of Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, who had previously criticised the EU for apparently failing to deliver on its promise to send grain imported from Ukraine to Middle Eastern and African countries.
Some of the grain exports remain in the countries neighbouring Ukraine, including Poland, and farmers have complained that they have problems selling their own grain due to full warehouses and decreasing prices.
In a letter addressed to the EC head, Ursula von der Leyen, the prime ministers of the five countries - Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - wrote: "The Russian aggression against Ukraine has not only led to a huge increase in production costs in the agricultural sector and an increase in business risk, but also to problems on the agricultural EU markets. However, the said difficulties are not even in the entire European market.
"The most severe disturbances are experienced in countries that border Ukraine or are in close proximity to it. These problems are related to a substantial increase in the supply of Ukrainian products to the markets of the EU Member States, especially those bordering or close to Ukraine," they wrote.
They also said that there are difficulties in disposing of surplus cereals in storage, and this has destabilised the market of cereals, industrial and oilseed crops, especially wheat, maize, rape and sunflower, and imposed additional costs on agricultural producers.
According to the five leaders, given the scale of the problems caused by the Russian war on Ukraine, some form of restrictions on the volume of Ukrainian grain imports needs to be introduced.
"On trade mechanisms, we propose to amend the current legal basis for agricultural imports from Ukraine to introduce the possibility of regulating the volume and direction of excessive inflows of agricultural products," they wrote.
In addition to this, the five leaders also called for increased financial support for farmers.
"Given the scale of the above phenomena, it is necessary to significantly increase the amount of EU funds allocated to EU support measures. Additional resources are needed, because the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy - PAP) and national budgets are insufficient," read the letter.
The signatories of the letter called for additional sources of funding, in addition to planned emergency measures, to support agricultural producers who have suffered losses and are at risk of losing financial liquidity.
In their opinion, these funds could also help to achieve the original goal of the Solidarity Lanes, namely the export of Ukrainian agricultural surpluses to African and Middle Eastern countries, and thus prevent famine.
"Furthermore, we call upon the Commission to analyse the possibility of buying the surplus grain from neighbouring Member States for humanitarian purposes," the prime ministers continued.
"Moreover, we call on the Commission to propose a common EU solution, which in cooperation with the World Food Programme (WFP), would ensure the purchase of Ukrainian grain so that it does not end up in EU Member States. This would help maintain the trade flow of food and mitigate the impacts of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on third countries," the letter further read.
They also recommended the introduction of an automatic support mechanism for farmers in regions and sectors affected by excessive imports from Ukraine, which distort EU markets and harm EU producers.
Source: The First News