Having failed to persuade a collection of Eastern European countries to undo their unilateral bans on Ukrainian grain imports by questioning their “solidarity” with Kyiv, Brussels officials tried—and failed, again—to win them over with cash.
The European Commission on Thursday, April 19th, offered EU farmers suffering from an influx of cheap Ukrainian imports, including grain, an extra €100 million of support. It also spoke of possible emergency “preventive measures” for wheat, maize, sunflower seeds, and rape seed. Talks are likely to have failed to persuade the affected countries—Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and, most recently, Bulgaria—because these want only-transit measures to apply to more goods, including honey, eggs, dairy, and meat. That is according to Euronews reporter Jorge Liboreiro, who was told by one diplomat that “we are talking about a list of products, timing, etc. All sides believe in reaching a consensus very soon.”
Poland was the first country to impose a temporary halt on imports following protests from farmers about the driving down of prices. The war in Ukraine has forced Ukrainian exports to be transported through the EU, with trade bottlenecks preventing these from moving forward to other markets, creating extreme competition with local producers.
The eastern countries said they had to act unilaterally after bloc bosses failed to act. (Their actions are also more than likely to have been swayed by upcoming national elections.) Andrzej Sadoś, Poland’s ambassador to the EU, told Politico that Warsaw had to do something because “individual farmers started to block terminals and train connections. They were protesting. We were very close to an escalation.”
Ursula von der Leyen has, however, taken issue with the fact that Poland, and the other four nations which followed, acted without coordination with Brussels. Ahead of talks on Wednesday, the Commission president wrote in a letter to the five world leaders:
Unilateral measures can only play into the hands of the adversaries of Ukraine and should not erode our unwavering support for Ukraine.
More talks will take place in the coming days with the aim of reaching a solution, EU officials told AFP.
