(new: statements of the agricultural commissioner added, last and penultimate paragraph)
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) – According to Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, the import restrictions on Ukrainian grain independently maintained by Poland, Hungary and Slovakia are probably not compatible with EU law. The Green politician said on Monday before a meeting with his EU colleagues in Brussels that he saw no reason for such measures. “I don’t see how this can be brought into line with EU law,” he added. According to his information, the market is accepting Ukrainian grain well.
Until Friday, a regulation by the EU Commission had allowed the eastern EU members Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria to restrict free trade in products such as wheat, corn, rapeseed or sunflowers from Ukraine on their markets. However, this expired on Friday. The Commission had thus opposed demands from EU states such as Poland and Hungary, which had called for an extension.
In response, the two states and Slovakia announced that they would maintain the measures even without Brussels’ consent. The reason for this is to protect local farmers from excessive competition from significantly increased imports from Ukraine. “This is part-time solidarity,” criticized Özdemir. The only one who this helps is the Russian president Wladimir Putin. “He rubs his hands.”
Kiev has filed a lawsuit against the three EU states at the World Trade Organization (WTO). “It is fundamentally important for us to prove that individual member states cannot impose an import ban on Ukrainian goods,” said the deputy head of the government responsible for economic affairs, Yulia Svyrydenko, according to a statement on Monday. However, Ukraine hopes that Poland, Slovakia and Hungary will lift their import bans and that the legal proceedings will not drag on for long. Proceedings at the WTO are usually lengthy.
Poland’s Agriculture Minister Robert Telus said on the sidelines of the meeting in Brussels that he was disappointed with the EU Commission’s decision. Only the Germans – he believes – spoke out clearly against the ban decision in the Council.
There is criticism of the German minister’s actions from the CDU: “It would have been Minister Özdemir’s job to negotiate with Warsaw in advance in this simmering and long-known political conflict,” said Albert Stegemann, food policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.
His Spanish ministerial colleague also sees the actions of the three eastern EU states in a similar way to Özdemir. Unilateral measures that restricted access to the internal market did not appear to be covered by the law, said Luis Planas. Spain currently holds the six-monthly rotating presidency among the EU states. France’s Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau also expressed regret at the unilateral measures taken. “This is not the first time and it calls into question the internal market and the common market deeply,” he said.
Both Özdemir and Planas emphasized that it is up to the EU Commission to assess the question of whether it sees the actions of the three eastern EU states as a violation of the law. A spokeswoman for the EU Commission said that the authority is currently analyzing the measures taken by the three EU states. In theory, if the law is violated, the Commission can initiate so-called infringement proceedings, which can end in proceedings before the European Court of Justice and a fine.
The EU Commission has always emphasized – again this Monday – that trade policy is an exclusive EU competence. “Therefore, all measures must be taken at EU level,” said a Commission spokeswoman. But at this point “we can’t say anything about the specific bans.” Poland’s agriculture minister said he was not afraid of a possible lawsuit, “because I would like to say once again that the interest of Polish farmers is more important to us than any regulations that harm Polish farmers.”
After the meeting of EU agriculture ministers, Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski emphasized that it was important to make the export of Ukrainian grain via EU trade routes cheaper. This could make Ukrainian products more attractive to the world market, reducing the likelihood that they will end up on markets in Poland or Hungary.
Grain traded via trade routes between EU countries and Ukraine is more expensive than grain exported via the Black Sea. However, this sea trade route is blocked because of the Russian war of aggression. However, poorer countries in particular – for example in Africa or Asia – benefit from cheap food and feed from Ukraine. Wojciechowski emphasized that Ukrainian grain was usually exported to countries such as Indonesia. But they “don’t really export from Ukraine via Latvia or Poland to Indonesia”./mjm/DP/jha