No unanimity among five EU countries to continue ban on agro-imports from Ukraine

Polish Minister of Agriculture Robert Telus has spoken about problems with Bulgaria in the context of supporting the extension of the EU ban on agricultural imports from Ukraine after September 15. He told RMF FM radio station.

Telus spoke about the results of a meeting in the Spanish city of Cordoba of five heads of agriculture ministries of Ukraine’s neighboring countries. According to him, the five countries want the EU’s list of agricultural import bans from Ukraine to be “flexible.” The idea is that a product can be removed from the list if its imports are desirable, or a new product can be added in case of excessive imports.

According to him, the “flexible list” sounds good, but it opens the field for bargaining. This means that the five countries can no longer stand firmly behind the EU’s list of currently banned four products, which includes wheat, corn, sunflower seeds and rapeseed.

“We have a small problem with Bulgaria,” Telus admitted, saying that Bulgaria wants sunflower seeds removed from the list because Bulgarian processors need them to import them from Ukraine. Instead, it would like to include “milk powder” in the list.

The Polish minister acknowledged that negotiations on this issue are still ongoing. Telus noted that Poland, in turn, wants to include raspberries or honey in the list. It is also unknown whether all other neighboring countries of Ukraine – in the event of a negative decision by the EC – will also introduce unilateral bans, as Poland plans to do.

The minister acknowledged that only Hungary “is very determined to introduce such a ban together with Poland,” while the Slovaks “are thinking about it very seriously.”

A meeting of EU agriculture ministers is taking place in Cordoba on Tuesday.

The minister also said that he had not heard any strongly negative opinions from EU agriculture ministers about extending the ban. He said that France is talking “very sensibly” about the need to build “an instrument for the future, because Ukraine will stay with us for a long time.”

He announced a meeting via video link between the five ministers and the French minister. Instead, Telus admitted that he had heard that EC President Ursula von der Leyen had promised Ukraine that she would not agree to extend the ban.

On August 31, EU Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski, representing Poland, supported the extension of the temporary ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products to five EU countries.

Ukraine insists that a unilateral extension of the ban would violate the rules of the common market and the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.

The ban, which applies to Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, expires on September 15.

Poland is currently in the midst of an election campaign scheduled for October 15, where the ruling Law and Justice party is trying to win a third consecutive term.

Tags: Poland, restrictions, Ukraine, grain, EU