EU agrees to renew Ukraine trade benefits, but deal still in the limbo

Though the European Parliament and the EU Council found a compromise to renew the trade liberalisation measures with Ukraine until June 2025, with an ‘emergency brake’ in case of excessive imports of key foods, EU Ambassadors postponed their final decision while the Parliament’s trade committee approved it.

European lawmakers should have only voted after the confirmation of the agreement by the EU ambassadors. But the chair of the Trade Committee Bernd Lange said, “We must give a signal,”  so that “the Council knows what the Parliament is saying.”

The move by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), endorsed by all political groups except ECR and ID, appears to be a way to force member states to accept the compromise. 

“Procedural rules are being ignored” and “attempts are being made to force decisions through without respect for democratic norms,” said Ityaly ID EU lawmaker Danilo Oscar Lancini.

A group of food-producing stakeholders’ including the European Sugar Users and Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, stated in a press release, they were relieved that the committee decided to vote in favour of the compromise, as it “will contribute to both the EU and Ukrainian economies.”

According to various EU sources, ambassadors postponed their decision due to opposition from several member states, especially Poland, (which holds regional elections at the beginning of April) and France.

“We will come back as soon as possible” to meet “at the latest next week”, on Wednesday “to confirm the compromise,” said an EU diplomat to Euractiv.

The agreement was long awaited, as the sharp increase of food imports from Ukraine into the EU has been one of the main drivers of the recent farmers’ protests in Eastern Europe, especially Poland.

Tensions have risen many times between Kyiv and Warsaw, because of farmers’ blockades at the border and vandalism to grain sacks, causing spillages.

Polish farmers anger Ukraine with border blockade, grain spillage

Protests by Polish farmers sparked anger in neighbouring Ukraine on Tuesday (20 February), as Kyiv called on the European Commission to take robust action after demonstrators blockaded the border and opened railway carriages to let grain spill out.

French cereal producers also called on their government to use all its power to reinforce legal measures, to protect themselves from Ukrainian imports.

To meet farmers’ demands, the EU institutions agreed to extend the list of imported products considered ‘sensitive’ (poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, maize, groats, and honey) and shorten the activation time of the automatic safeguard (from 21 to 14 days). This will be triggered when imported volumes rise above the 2022-23 average. 

Dawn of criticism

The deal between the Parliament and the Council was reached late into the night at 2 am on Wednesday (20 March) and faced sharp criticism by the early morning. 

“Without the change in the reference year and no direct inclusion of wheat, this proposal fails to address producers’ concerns and hence remains unacceptable,” said the farmers’ organisations Copa and Cogeca in a tweet.

“This is not the position that France was defending,” said French agriculture minister Marc Fesnau to the radio station France Info.

Keen to clarify France’s position, Fesnau said, yes “solidarity with Ukraine, but markets must be stabilised at a European level”, stressing the work on the dossier “must continue.”

On 31 January the European Commission proposed to prolong the trade benefits, reinforcing the existing safeguard mechanisms on imports disrupting the internal market.

They also proposed an emergency break on sugar, poultry and egg imports, based on 2022-2023 figures.

Considering the approaching European Parliament elections, in less than 90 days, both the EU Council and the Parliament’s trade committee deemed that a ‘fast-track’ procedure with no amendments was the safest pathway to have the temporary measures reapproved.

But last week European lawmakers amended the text, adding cereals and honey to a sensitive list of products and extending the reference period to pre-war levels in 2021. 

*Hugo Struna contributed to this reporting

[Edited by Rajnish Singh]

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