Ukraine protests to Poland and the EU for restrictions on agricultural exports

29 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has submitted a formal protest to the Polish Embassy and the EU representation in Ukraine in response to the restrictions imposed on Ukrainian agricultural exports.

Specifically, Kiev protests the “categorically unacceptable situation” that involves a breach of the Association Agreement signed between Ukraine and the EU and the principles of the Single Market, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, was quoted as saying by the agency. UNIAN Ukrainian News.

“There is a legal basis for the immediate resumption of Ukrainian agricultural exports to Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria, as well as for continued unimpeded export to other EU Member States, as well as for the transit of all Ukrainian products. destined for other countries both inside and outside the borders of the EU”, Nikolenko pointed out in the note.

Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania have banned imports of Ukrainian agricultural products for their domestic market due to pressure from farmers in these countries. Poland even went so far as to temporarily veto the transit of Ukrainian cereals.

An agreement between Poland and the EU was announced on Friday whereby the ban only applies to grain imports and not to all Ukrainian agricultural exports. These restrictions have cost Ukraine at least $200 million since April, according to kyiv calculations.

The Ukrainian Finance Minister, Sergii Marchenko, has stressed that the agreement allows to end harmful restrictions not only for Ukraine but also for countries in the Middle East and Africa. Marchenko is in Stockholm, where a meeting of EU finance ministers was held this Saturday.

Marchenko has stressed that EU ministers have discussed giving Ukraine more financial support as kyiv spends half of its budget on the war effort. He has even estimated the financing that will be given in the whole of 2023 at 18,000 million.