The European Commission is analyzing ways to allow eastern EU member states to limit agricultural imports from Ukraine as it extends trade liberalization with Kyiv for another year, until June 2025, Reuters reports.

The EU has suspended import duties, quotas and trade protection measures on imports from Ukraine from June 2022 to support its economy after the Russian invasion.

However, Ukraine’s cheap grain exports have sparked protests from governments, farmers and truckers in neighboring countries such as Poland, Romania and Hungary.

Eastern EU countries such as Romania and Poland will be able to stop imports

European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said that the EU executive will present a proposal for a new period until June 2025, taking into account the problems of the agricultural sectors in the member states of the Eastern bloc.

The existing arrangement provides for safeguards, but they only apply if the entire EU market is affected.

“We are looking at the best ways to do this, including the possibility of having guarantees not only in the event of failures in the EU market, but also in the event of failures in one or more member states,” he said. said before a meeting of EU trade ministers.

The EU trade chief said the Commission was looking at how to protect the most vulnerable products, adding that he had discussed the issue with the agriculture ministers of Poland and Hungary in the past 24 hours.

Hungary: cheap Ukrainian grain “ruined” us.

An EU diplomat said the plan would allow affected EU members to take swift action during an initial period of four months, subject to a review by the Commission within three weeks.

In addition, Ukraine will be encouraged to better comply with EU standards.

Earlier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Peter Szijjarto, said that the influx of cheap Ukrainian grain had “destroyed” the markets of Central Europe: “We have banned the import of Ukrainian grain and some agricultural products… We would like to preserve this measure.” I would like to return to the original agreement, which provided for the transit of Ukrainian grain,” he said.

Until mid-September last year, the EU allowed five countries – Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – to ban domestic sales of wheat, corn, rape and sunflower seeds from Ukraine, while allowing their transit for export to other countries. countries.

• Read also The EU will block the export of Ukrainian agricultural products if they fill the markets of neighboring countries, such as Poland or Romania