The European Commission will prepare a new financial support package in the amount of 100 million euros for farmers in Eastern Europe affected by the import of Ukrainian grain. According to RBC with reference to La Stampa, EC representative Dana Spinant said that the head of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, came up with such an initiative in response to a letter from the governments of five EU countries.
“You will remember that we have already provided a support package of 56.3 million euros for the most affected farmers, and now we are preparing a second financial support package of 100 million euros,” Spinant said.
She promised that the European Commission will also take preventive measures for certain categories of cereals, this primarily concerns wheat, sunflower and rapeseed, and will conduct studies on other products.
In a joint statement by representatives of six Eastern European countries – Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – it was said that in 2022 the import of some Ukrainian agricultural crops to the border countries of Europe increased from several thousand to several million tons. This resulted in significant losses for local farmers.
The first €56 million assistance package for farmers in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria was agreed at the end of March, financed by the EU’s agricultural subsidies program reserve fund. However, this support was not enough, as a result of which Polish farmers took to the streets, which led to the resignation of the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic, Henryk Kowalczyk.
In mid-April, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia imposed restrictions on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products, and Romania demanded similar decisions. The Ukrainian authorities and the European Commission criticized the actions of these countries. By April 18, the Ukrainian and Polish sides managed to agree on lifting the ban.
Source: Rosbalt
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