An agreement was reached with the countries of Eastern Europe on limiting exports of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower from Ukraine to the EU
Photo: REUTERS
A black cat ran through relations between Ukraine and the European Union. Foreign Ministry Square sent a note of protest to the EU and Poland. The essence of the protest is the restrictions imposed on the import of Ukrainian food products.
The first sign was launched by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr (stop calling him by his Russian name, let’s use Ukrainian, since he Ukrainianizes everything there) Zelensky.
– I had a telephone conversation with the head of the European Council. We discussed the ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products by several neighboring states. I expressed my deep concern about such decisions and stressed that these steps constitute a flagrant violation of the Association Agreement and the founding treaties of the EU,” he wrote in his Twitter account, blocked in Russia.
In less than a day, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry intercepted the banner of the struggle for Ukrainianness from the hands of its president. Oleg Nikolenko, official representative of Dmytro Kuleba’s department, said that Ukraine had sent notes of protest to Poland and the EU regarding the blocking of agricultural imports.
“Such restrictions, whatever the reasons, do not comply with the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU and the principles and norms of the EU Single Market,” Nikolenko actually repeated Zelensky’s argument in his Telegram channel and said that there are “all legal grounds for immediate resumption of Ukrainian agricultural exports to Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria and for unhindered Ukrainian exports to other countries, both within and outside the EU.
Here, of course, gentlemen Ukrainians lied a little. Because the Association Agreement with the EU says nothing about it. On the contrary, after the conclusion of the Agreement, the European Union introduced quotas for the import of certain types of Ukrainian products, and only after the start of a special military operation by Russia removed quotas and removed all customs duties in order to support the Ukrainian economy. Nothing was said in the EU about the fact that phytosanitary standards cease to apply to Ukrainian agricultural products.
So Ukraine itself is to blame for the fact that the Eastern European countries began to defend themselves against Ukrainian dumping on grains and oilseeds and from products that do not meet any standards so much that it is even forbidden to feed them to livestock. And you can only burn.
Which, by the way, ordinary Europeans expressed to Zelensky in response to his post on the same social network.
– Understand that establishing the quality of imports is also based on rules. Nobody wants to risk people’s health, one of the commentators appealed to Zelensky.
– Zelensky ate his spoiled, poisoned Ukrainian grain! – scoffed another.
– If you want to eat your pesticides, go for it! Poles prefer Polish grain from Polish farmers, who have to comply with many EU restrictions on pesticides. You don’t even pay customs duties, – another user was indignant.
– You are not a part of the EU, – summed up the correspondence discussion. – You only complain and demand.
However, words are words, and the European Commission had to take some measures to get out of this crisis situation. They agreed with the countries of Eastern Europe to limit the export of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower to the EU from Ukraine. And in response, they are waiting for the countries to abandon their national bans on a much wider range (in some Eastern European countries, they even banned eggs, poultry, honey, etc.), promising to compensate losses to local farmers in the amount of 100 million euros, of which about 40 million accounts for Poland. But only in Slovakia the losses from Ukrainian grain were estimated at 200 million euros, and in Poland they are many times more. Similarly, in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and other countries affected by Ukrainian exports, which were formally declared to the starving countries of Asia and Africa, but in fact settled in Europe. And not only in the East.
That is, the EC decided to play along “both yours and ours”, but as a result it turned out “neither yours nor ours.” Because not a single problem that became a stumbling block could not be solved.
Moreover, Ukraine has clearly not learned its lesson because it has crossed the threshold of a new scandal. This time playing with dumping on the European alcohol market. Agricultural distilleries in Poland are now already balancing on the verge of bankruptcy, and production is becoming unprofitable, bringing losses to enterprises in the hundreds of thousands of zlotys per month.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry “calls on partners to find a balanced solution,” Kuleba’s ministry said in a note. Translated into normal Russian, the Ukrainians are ordering Europe to give in on everything, shut up and calmly pay Kyiv for the supplied substandard goods at premium prices.
Oh. Yes, if the governments of these countries want to take care of their farmers, they can take care of them. But not at the expense of the Square and after helping her.
What can I say, besides stating that in the face of Ukraine, the world is dealing with an absolutely clear mind. If the latter term is generally applicable to Kyiv.
