Today the Polish Minister of Agriculture and the EU Commissioner for Trade talked about the present and future measures of the EC and the Member States intended to protect against excessive imports of selected agricultural products from Ukraine. The meeting took place in an online format.

The EU challenges posed by the war in Ukraine

Minister Robert Telus stressed the need to support Ukraine in its fight against the Russian aggression. He pointed out the need to improve the transit of products from Ukraine through the territories of the frontline EU Member States to the other EU Member States and third countries. Minister Robert Telus noted that the purpose of the Solidarity Lanes should not be only to make it easier for commodities to cross the EU border. He called for support from the European Commission for the expansion of the needed infrastructure to be used to transport these commodities to other EU Member States and outside the EU.

“At present, the European Union is facing a very important moment. An increased inflow of Ukrainian products will still remain for a long time an element of the market situation. Appropriate legal and infrastructural instruments are needed to effectively cope with it. If they are gone, we will have a never ending problem,” Minister Robert Telus said.

The position of the frontline states

Minister Robert Telus informed the Commissioner about the joint position of the Agriculture Ministers of the informal coalition of the frontline states on the need to extend the preventive measures on Ukrainian maize, wheat, rapeseed and sunflower oil (i.e. a ban on their imports to the five frontline states) after 15 September.

“We are also keen to ensure that the range of commodities covered by the preventive measures has a flexible character and can be modified in agreement with the European Commission. In the frontline states, the problems caused by the imports from Ukraine are not the same and can occur in different sectors,“ Minister Robert Telus informed.

The situation on the soft fruit market

Minister Robert Telus also informed Commissioner Valids Dombrovskis about the difficult situation on the soft fruit market in Poland. The Minister called on the Commissioner to approve a Polish request for the application of preventive measures on frozen raspberries and strawberries.

The position of the European Commission

Commissioner Dombrovskis informed that the Commission was open to a further dialogue and efforts to improve the transit and the Solidarity Lanes. The Commissioner also proposed an in-depth discussion at the expert level on the situation in the soft fruit sector and on the solutions which could be implemented.