Ukraine’s accession to the EU would be a “disaster” for European agriculture, Arnaud Rousseau, the president of the main French agricultural union (FNSEA), reacted on Wednesday in an interview with regional media in France, after the European Commission recommended opening negotiations on the accession of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.

Wheat harvest in Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine) in 2020Photo: Ukrinform / Avalon / Profimedia

“In the conditions of war, it is very difficult to speak on this topic, because you are immediately accused of not supporting Ukraine. But if we speak strictly from an agrarian point of view, Ukraine’s accession to the European Union would be a disaster for European agriculture,” warned the leader of the French trade union, reports France Presse, citing Agerpres.

According to him, Ukrainian agriculture “plays by the same rules”, it produces approximately “the equivalent of a quarter of European agriculture, especially in terms of poultry and large crops, but with environmental norms and production standards that are much lower than our practice.” “.

Ukrainian agricultural products already have free access to the EU market thanks to a mechanism the bloc offered to Ukraine to help it in its war with Russia.

However, this object mainly affected the Eastern European countries neighboring Ukraine, and to a lesser extent the Western European countries. The latter and Kyiv protested measures taken by the governments of some Eastern European countries to protect their farmers, who suffered from Ukrainian grain sold at prices below the cost of local producers.

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