Brussels Insists on Compromise on Agricultural Imports and Is Waiting for Steps from Ukraine

The European Commission said that on Monday afternoon, Ukraine should present steps to introduce control over its agricultural exports and insist on a compromise solution to the agricultural dispute, despite the decision made by Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.

Miriam García Ferrer, European Commission spokeswoman, refused to comment on the unilateral bans imposed by three countries – Poland, Hungary and Slovakia – on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products, despite the fact that a compromise was reached regarding Ukrainian products.

"Regarding the announcements we heard over the weekend, we cannot comment at this stage, we are still analysing the measures (of Poland, Hungary and Slovakia – ed.)," she said.

Ferrer reminded that trade policy is the exclusive competence of the EU, not the member states, so now the European Commission must evaluate the introduced measures to decide what the next steps will be.

She once again confirmed that restrictions on the import of certain types of Ukrainian products into the EU, which were in effect until 15 September, are no longer needed. Ferrer also refused to answer all questions from the press regarding Ukraine's potential lawsuit against three EU countries.

"The agreement we have with Ukraine now is that they will implement a system to control exports in the next 30 days, but also (that they are) ready from 16 September, which is Saturday, for some concrete actions to ensure that there will be no increase in the export of these products to the EU.

We will have another meeting of the coordination platform this evening where we will discuss this and where Ukraine will present the measures it has put in place and the action plan," the spokeswoman said.

"But we must insist that our focus now is to ensure that the system that we announced on Friday works and that we continue to engage constructively, as we have done under the coordination platform, which, as I said, will continue to meet and discuss this evening," added Ferrer.

On Friday, the European Commission announced that it would not extend restrictions on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine after 15 September, but Kyiv agreed to take measures to limit imports from its side.

However, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have decided to impose unilateral restrictions, with Warsaw saying their restrictions will remain in place indefinitely.