Next Thursday, Ukraine and the EU will meet in Brussels to resolve the grain dispute

A meeting of the Coordination Platform on Ukrainian Grain Exports, consisting of Ukraine, five neighboring countries and other EU member states interested in solving the grain problem, will be held next Thursday to adopt an action plan proposed by Ukraine. This was announced today in Brussels during a press briefing by European Commission spokesperson Miriam Garcia Ferrer.

“Today we have finalized our comments on the Ukrainian action plan, which was presented on Monday during the meeting of the Coordination Platform. The exchanges were very constructive and we saw a very positive way forward. Today we sent an invitation to participate in the next meeting of the Coordination Platform next Thursday. We will have the opportunity to finalize this action plan so that it can start working as soon as possible,” said the European Commission spokesperson.

She reminded that the action plan to address the problem of grain exports was developed by Ukraine and has various components. They include establishing stricter control over the export of Ukrainian agricultural products, conducting an information campaign to explain to exporters the vulnerability of markets in neighboring countries, summarizing information on end consumers of Ukrainian agricultural products, etc.

The main element of the submitted plan is the introduction of authorization and verification, in other words, licensing of export operations with agricultural products previously subject to EU trade remedies, including wheat, corn, sunflower seeds and rapeseed.

“This action plan presented by Ukraine concerns five countries: Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria <…> There is a very constructive participation from all sides. We have been working hard throughout the week and hope that we can resolve this situation very quickly,” Ferrer emphasized.

Tags: Slovakia, restrictions, Ukraine, grain, EU, Poland, Hungary