The European Parliament extends the deadline for the importation of Ukrainian agricultural products / Article

With 428 votes in favor, 131 against and 44 abstentions, the members of the European Parliament decided to continue the special regime for the import of Ukrainian agricultural products, although some politicians saw it as a compromise between the interests of European farmers and support for Ukraine.

This compromise came very hard, and in the end there will still be some restrictions on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products.

There was a lot of pressure from France and Poland to reduce the concessions for Ukrainian agricultural products – this appeared both in the European Parliament and in the Council of the European Union, and there were not one but two trilogues on this topic, which rarely happens.

Both were chaired by Latvian MEP Sandra Kalniete from the EP side.

“I had to lead these negotiations. We agreed after about seven rounds. In the meantime, farmers’ unrest continued in Europe, and then came the (European Union) Council meeting, which did not approve the results of this trialogue. This happens quite rarely – it was the member states, France and Poland, who demanded more in addition, various restrictive measures,” said Kalniete.

This step was taken in return and a compromise has been reached – protection measures have been strengthened to protect European Union (EU) farmers against the entry of cheaper Ukrainian agricultural products.

The European Commission (EC) can take action if the markets of one or more EU member states are significantly disrupted by Ukrainian wheat.

The Commission can put the emergency brakes on particularly sensitive agricultural products – now there are more of them. These are poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, groats, corn and honey.

The reference period has been increased by half a year, including the pre-war period – the second half of 2021, when the import of Ukrainian food products was lower. With all these compromises, on Tuesday more than 130 MPs voted against – among them were Polish MPs from the People’s Party group, there were many conservatives and also the extreme right, and also Ždanoka.

This decision still needs to be approved by the Council of the European Union, but there are hopes that France and Poland will no longer try to slow it down.

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