Ukrainian grain crisis: Poland proposes to create an “agrarian Ramstein”

Anna Fotyga, a member of the European Parliament and Secretary General of the Party of European Conservatives and Reformists, has proposed creating an “agricultural Ramstein” to solve the problem with Ukrainian grain. She said this in an interview with the Voice of America.

Similar to the defense group, which has more members than NATO, the “agrarian Ramstein” would also include those willing to participate from different regions of the world, exporters and importers, who would jointly solve the main problems due to the lack or surplus of agricultural products in different markets of the world, she explained.

According to Fotyga, who headed Poland’s foreign ministry in 2006-2007 and then headed the Office of President Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the problem with the sale and transportation of Ukrainian grain has become one of the three consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine, while the Kremlin seeks to harm the West.

According to her, Russia first provoked a migrant crisis on Belarus’ border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, trying to destabilize the countries that were most willing to help Ukraine in the war.

The second was the energy crisis, which was caused by Russia’s restriction of gas supplies to Europe in order to create an artificial deficit. But at that time, the MEP points out, there was a clear realization that this crisis was global and needed to be addressed through joint efforts. Europe managed to overcome its dependence on Russian gas.

And the third, according to Fotyga, is the destabilization of global agricultural markets. Like the first two, she says, this problem should be addressed comprehensively and through joint efforts.

“The scope and scale of this problem exceeds the EU’s ability to solve it. It’s bigger, it’s global, it’s huge,” the MEP said.

According to her, the reason for this is the fact that Russia has pushed Ukraine out of traditional grain supply markets such as China and India.

The EU, for its part, opened access for Ukrainian agricultural products at one point without calculating the consequences, she said.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Tags: Ukraine, grain, EU, Poland, restrictions