Milk, poultry and other food products should be included on a list of Ukrainian imports to be temporarily banned by the European Union, Poland's Agriculture Minister Robert Telus said on Thursday. Also that day, Hungary called for "progressive" aid from the EU to help move Ukraine's grain through central European countries whose farmers are having to compete with its cheaper imports.
The European Commission said on Wednesday it would take emergency "preventive measures" for wheat, maize, sunflower seeds and rapeseed after some central European countries took unilateral steps to ban imports of food products from Ukraine to protect their own agricultural sectors.
"l am fully aware of the concerns you express as regards the increased imports of certain Ukrainian agricultural products," EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a letter to the leaders of the affected EU states.
Von der Leyen added the Commission "has reacted immediately by providing a rapid financial support package of EUR 56.3 million for the most affected farmers, which is already being implemented". "We are now preparing to present a second financial support package of EUR 100 million and a 200% co-financing rate, for affected farmers, as part of a common European approach."
However, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, whose ministers took part in talks with European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on Wednesday, want the list to be longer, including products like milk, poultry and honey.
"I'm very happy that the European Union has noticed this problem, discusses it, and even has certain proposals," Robert Telus told a news conference on Thursday.
"We propose more products than they (the EU) proposed," he added, however. "They proposed four cereals, the five of us propose more of these products."
"We discussed our proposals, our list is much wider - milk, poultry meat, honey," Telus said.
Hungary calls for "progressive" EU aid
Hungarian Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy called on Thursday for the European Union to provide "progressive" aid to help Ukrainian grain transit through central European countries.
"We are calling for the introduction of progressive EU transit aid to ensure that Ukrainian grain, which has caused significant market difficulties, can reach its traditional markets," Nagy said in a Facebook post.
Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy met his Ukrainian counterpart after Hungary banned imports of honey and certain meat products from Ukraine, in addition to grains, until June 30, adding to pressure to broaden proposed EU-wide measures.
Nagy did not say what was meant by "progressive" in terms of what aid Hungary considered was required from the EU.
An EU official said the proposals would only allow the grains to enter the five countries from Ukraine if they were set for export to other EU members or to the rest of the world. This measure would last until the end of June.
The countries became transit routes for Ukrainian grain that could not be exported through Ukraine's Black Sea ports because of Russia's invasion.
Bottlenecks then trapped millions of tons of grains in countries bordering Ukraine, forcing local farmers to compete with an influx of cheap Ukrainian imports.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters