Hungarian farmers have planned a protest on February 9 at the "Zakhon — Chop" crossing point against the European Commissionʼs decision to extend the duty-free import of Ukrainian products for another year.
This was announced by the president of the Association of Hungarian Farmersʼ Unions and Farmers (Magosz) Istvan Jakab, as Telex reports.
The Association claims that Hungarian farmers have to compete with products whose production does not meet EU requirements.
When the European Commission did not extend the ban on the import of Ukrainian grain, Hungary did so arbitrarily. And Magosz declared that they support the Hungarian government, which "protects their interests from Brussels."
Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy believes that the European Commissionʼs proposal on duty-free trade with Ukraine "does not offer any solutions to the problems of importing Ukrainian grain."
According to him, Hungary is going to maintain the national ban on the import of products from Ukraine until an "equivalent international solution" is found.
- Earlier this day, Polish farmers also announced a new nationwide strike — they plan to block all border crossings between Poland and Ukraine from February 9 to March 10. This is also a response to the position of Brussels.
- On January 31, the European Commission officially proposed to extend for a year, until mid-2025, the duty-free regime for exports from Ukraine. However, it is not as liberal as in the previous two years and takes into account the peculiarities of EU farmers. The new autonomous trade measures actually provide for the introduction of quotas for the most sensitive products — poultry, eggs and sugar. If the import of these products exceeds the average annual import volumes for 2022 and 2023, duties will be imposed on them. The proposal of the European Commission should be considered by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.