Faced with the anger of farmers, who marched on their tractors at the end of January in several countries of the Union, the Europeans wanted to act as quickly as possible, without neglecting any aspect of their demands. With the approach of the European elections, organized from June 6 to 9, which could see the far right make a breakthrough, they did not want to take the risk of letting the situation worsen. They therefore, in record time, decided to ease the environmental constraints of the Common Agricultural Policy before agreeing, Monday April 8, to restrict imports of Ukrainian agricultural products which, since June 2022, have accessed the internal market without customs duty.
As a result, this favorable regime, decided after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and renewed every year since, will not be extended after June 2025. Until then, the Commission will have to negotiate a free trade agreement with kyiv sustainable company that will take over. Meanwhile, starting June 6, imports of poultry, eggs, sugar, corn, honey, oats and groats will be taxed when they exceed the average level they reached between mid-2021 and the end of 2023, within fourteen days.
“By extending the support for one year [en termes de droits de douane]this agreement demonstrates continued solidarity” of the European Union (EU) while “strengthening safeguards to protect EU farmers in the event of market disruption”, welcomed right-wing Latvian MEP Sandra Kalniete. In kyiv, we regret this decision, which is expected to cost Ukrainian farmers 330 million euros per year at a time when American aid is blocked and the Russian army is progressing every day.
It is true that Ukraine, prevented by the Russian blockade of the Black Sea from exporting its agricultural products to its traditional markets, has redirected its sales towards the EU, at particularly competitive prices. In 2023, according to the Commission, it will become its third supplier of agri-food products (7% of its imports), behind Brazil and the United Kingdom. In detail, last year, it sold ten times more eggs and barley in Europe than before the war, twenty times more wheat, and almost thirty times more sugar.
Difficult debates
Ukraine nevertheless judges that the decision of the Twenty-Seven is not factually justified. It claims that its exports within the EU represent only 1% of Europeans’ egg consumption and meet only 2% of their demand for poultry. That’s to say “what Ukrainian refugees could easily consume”, Ukrainian Minister of Agriculture, Mykola Solsky, explained to Agence France-Presse on March 25. She also argues that world cereal prices are being pushed down due to abundant harvests in the United States and South America and Russian exports at knockdown prices.
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