Brussels supports the veto of Poland and Hungary to Ukrainian cereals but demands to allow transit

Brussels is preparing to approve emergency measures in order to temporarily ban (until June) imports of Ukrainian grain into Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgariaexcept those shipments in transit to other countries of the European Union or the rest of the world.

The objective of this initiative is to protect the farmers of these countries, who denounce an avalanche of agricultural products coming from the country at war that is sinking prices in border countries.

In addition, the Ursula von der Leyen Commission will approve a second package of 100 million euros to compensate affected European producers. The Community Executive already approved a first aid in March of 56 million euros allocated to farmers in Poland, Bulgaria and Romania.

[Bruselas avisa a Polonia y Hungría de que su veto a los cereales ucranianos vulnera las reglas de la UE]

With this European-wide initiative, the Commission intends to prevent these countries from continuing to adopt “unilateral measures”. In recent days, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria have already introduced national vetoes that Brussels says violate European trade law.

“It is an EU measure that would replace unilateral measures adopted by the front-line countries, which would have to withdraw them. Trade policy is a common policy that requires a European solution”, explain community sources. In practice, Brussels supports the vetoes of these countries with the requirement that they do not affect transit.

The emergency ban will only apply to four products: wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds. For the rest of the agricultural products affected by the avalanche of Ukrainian imports, the Community Executive will launch normal investigation procedures to determine if it is necessary to also adopt restrictive measures.

The announcement of these measures was made by Von der Leyen herself in a letter addressed to the prime ministers of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, who in turn had written to the president to ask her to adopt measures.

“Unilateral measures only benefit Ukraine’s adversaries and should not erode our unconditional support for Ukraine. Ukraine’s exports must continue to reach markets around the world, including developing countries. At the same time, we need to address the unintended consequences of the unexpected surge in imports in your countries”, alleges von der Leyen.

The Community Executive maintains that Ukrainian cereals remain in Poland and the rest of the border countries because the logistics costs of sending them to other parties are excessively high: they represent 40% of the total, while under normal circumstances they should not exceed 10%.

In fact, Brussels cites the case of Spain as an example, which last year launched a pilot project to import Ukrainian cereals by train that has not been followed up due to its high costs. In fact, our country now imports the corn it needs from Latin America because it is cheaper for him than taking it out of Ukraine.

For this reason, Von der Leyen calls for now to concentrate all efforts on improving logistics to get agricultural products out of Ukraine through neighboring countries, especially now that exports from the Black Sea ports have once again fallen to a minimum due to the Russian blockade.