The National Assembly of Bulgaria on Thursday has decided to support the lifting of the ban on Ukrainian agricultural imports after September 15. The vote took place after a little over two hours of debate in the plenary hall.

According to BTN News, a total of 124 legislators supported the decision to lift the ban on grain import from Ukraine, which expires on September 15, and 69 MPs were against it.

The Committee on Economic Policy and Innovation of the Parliament of Bulgaria on Tuesday approved a draft decision stating that the country does not support the extension of the ban on importing certain agricultural products from Ukraine after 15 September.

As a result, tensions arose between Bulgarian farmers and the authorities over the next two days. The industry threatened protests, while the authorities said that the ban on Ukrainian imports is one of the reasons for the rise in prices in the country.

The day before, Agriculture Minister Kiril Vatev said that the proposal to cancel the ban was not discussed with him. However, later in the day he admitted that there was an economic logic to this, as allowing imports would not have serious consequences for the Bulgarian economy.

Vater said that the control over importing Ukrainian products will be strengthened, as they do not meet EU standards.

The GERB-SDS party commented that today's decision is not important, since the ban will be cancelled at the EU level anyway. The PP-DB political party said that this decision will reduce prices.

"It is necessary to compare what is more important – to slightly but significantly reduce food inflation for 7 million people or to give an additional advantage to the sector that receives 2 billion per year," Kiril Petkov from PP-DB said.

The opposition criticised the decision of the parliament and called it "treason". "This is pure national treason not because we are not in favour of a free market, but because we cannot put our grain producers in a situation where they become uncompetitive," said Deyan Nikolov from the Vazrazhdane ("Renaissance") party.

The Office of the President of Ukraine welcomed the vote of the Bulgarian Parliament. "This is a vivid example of how a mature European democracy makes decisions based on facts, not emotions, and does not mix economics and politics. We are sincerely grateful to the government and parliament of Bulgaria," Deputy Head of the President's Office Ihor Zhovkva said.

In recent months, a total of five EU countries demanded to extend the ban on the import of some Ukrainian agricultural products including Bulgaria. Now there are four countries: Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.

The Polish government on Tuesday adopted a resolution declaring its intention to extend the ban at the national level if it is not extended at the EU level. Hungary announced the same intentions; in addition, Budapest declared its intentions to expand the list of goods subject to restrictions and claimed an alleged agreement on this matter with Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that Ukraine would request the arbitration of the World Trade Organisation if Poland blocked the export of Ukrainian grain.

Read more: September 15 Crisis: New Test for Ukraine-Poland Relations