The ministers of agriculture of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have called on the European Commission to cancel the increased quotas for agricultural products from Ukraine and to oblige Ukrainian companies to adhere to the standards adopted on the EU market.
This was announced by the Hungarian Minister of Agriculture István Nagy.
„In a joint letter with my colleagues from Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, we called on Brussels to take action. The EU regulation regulating imports from Ukraine expires in June this year, so the European Commission must find a long-term solution to the market problems caused by Ukrainian agricultural products,“ the minister wrote on his Facebook page.
Nagy said that Eastern European countries consider it necessary to return to the EU quotas for agricultural supplies from Ukraine, which existed before the start of its armed conflict with Russia, that is, until February 2022. They also propose that the EC restore customs duties and “introduce individual quotas on a regional basis“ for such supplies to countries bordering Ukraine. In addition, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia are calling on Brussels to ensure that Ukrainian agricultural products entering the European market meet EU sanitary, phytosanitary, environmental and other standards.
„It will be interesting to see whether Brussels will take into account the interests of Eastern European farmers this time or will betray them again, as it did in September 2023, when it did not extend the ban on Ukrainian imports to the EU. Hungary will maintain restrictions on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products as long as this is necessary to protect Hungarian farmers“, Nagy assured.
The Hungarian government has repeatedly stated that European farmers are suffering large losses due to the supply of Ukrainian agricultural products to Europe at dumped prices. The EU's decision in 2022 to eliminate tariffs and quotas on agricultural imports from Ukraine has caused serious damage to Eastern European countries. Due to different production standards and the size of agricultural land, cheaper Ukrainian produce is displacing European farmers' produce from their traditional export markets.
In the fall of 2023, Eastern European countries were forced to impose a ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine, as the European Commission refused to extend the embargo on supplies to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia of four types of grain and oilseed crops - wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower - that expired on September 15. Hungary unilaterally left the embargo in force and extended it to another 20 types of Ukrainian agricultural products, including cereals, meat, eggs, vegetable oil, vegetables and honey.