The countries of the European Union have decided to pay €100 million to farmers in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria, whose economies have been affected by the surplus of exports of agricultural products from Ukraine.
This is reported by RMF FM.
Polish farmers will receive €40 million from this amount. Now the Polish authorities will be able to increase aid to farmers by 200%, allocating funds from their own budget.
After the start of a full-scale war, the European Union canceled all tariffs and quotas for the transit of Ukrainian grain. Farmers from Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia were reported to have lost €417 million due to the influx of Ukrainian grain into their markets.
- Already on April 15, Poland banned the import of grain and other food from Ukraine, and also decided to introduce a ban on its transit there.
- Subsequently, a ban on imports was announced in Hungary and Slovakia, but they promised to maintain transit. The European Commission called the decisions of the three countries unacceptable. After the negotiations, Poland promised to resume grain transit. However, the European Commission agreed to ban the import of wheat, corn, rape and sunflower. The European Commission also decided to allocate an additional €100 million to help farmers who suffered losses.
- On May 31, Hungary asked the European Union to extend restrictions on imports of Ukrainian grain and oil crops for itself, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia at least until the end of this year.
- On May 2, the European Commission officially temporarily banned the import of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds from Ukraine. The ban lasted until June 5, 2023. During this period, the mentioned goods could be imported to all EU states, except Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. At the same time, transit of Ukrainian products was carried out through their territory.