EU initiatives against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine have always excluded the agricultural sector. This is meant to avoid side effects on global food security, as Russia is the world’s largest exporter of wheat and a major player in the global fertiliser market. 

Today, the solidity of these considerations is crumbling in the face of the political necessity to rebuild the pro-Ukrainian front, worn down by months of farmers’ protests, especially in Eastern Europe. 

At an EU summit on Thursday, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to present to EU leaders proposals to restrict food imports from Russia, imposing duties on Moscow cereals. 

The trade liberalisation with Ukraine, one of the ways the EU helps the Kyiv economy stay afloat, has had unintended consequences.

It has backfired, as the collapse in prices caused by the sharp increase in imports of food commodities, mainly cereals, has been one of the key drivers of the farmers’ protests in Eastern European countries, particularly in Poland, in recent months. 

Tension has frequently risen between Kyiv and Warsaw because of farmers’ blockades at the border and grain spillage. 

The powerful French cereal growers also sided with their Polish counterparts, and curbing excessive import from Kyiv has become a demand shared by the EU farmers’ organisations Copa and Cogeca.

In the meantime, according to European Commission data, the EU imported 1.1 million tonnes of cereals from Russia between July 2023 and January 2024, with each monthly import higher than the five-year average for the comparable month.

At a time when the price of cereals has sunk to its lowest level since 2020, and the Black Sea Ukrainian corridor exports are resuming, the idea is to ease the pressure on the EU market by restricting access to Russian wheat and other grains.

“If this disappears from the market, this will relax the situation,” the chair of the European Parliament’s Trade Committee, Bernd Lange, said today. 

Many agree.

The Latvian Parliament approved a unilateral ban on the import (allowing only transit) of Russian agricultural products. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, under pressure like no one else from farmers’ protests, said he wanted to follow suit. 

On Tuesday (12 March), a number of European parliamentarians called for a similar measure at the EU level, highlighting the potential role of such trade in financing the Russian war against Ukraine.

“For certain products where Polish farmers are raising the most concerns, [there is] unnecessary competition from Russian products,” Ukraine’s trade representative Taras Kachka told Euractiv.

Last week, in a joint statement with Tusk, von der Leyen announced that the Commission was “evaluating the possibility of introducing restrictions on imports of agricultural products from Russia to the European Union” and “will come forward with a proposal shortly”. 

After sharing a consensus, the political leaders will have to convince the farmers. Russian wheat production over the last two seasons has undoubtedly been at a record high. It is also true that imports of Russian cereals into the EU have increased.

But it is hard to see how having 1.1 million or even 1.5 million tonnes less can bring relief for prices and farmers in a continent expected to produce more than 272 million tonnes of grains this year.

The Roundup

The EU’s auditing body has warned that the European Commission’s strategy of relying on member states to ensure the money of the pandemic recovery fund is properly spent is heightening the “risk of irregularity or even corruption”.

Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta, in charge of the long-awaited Single Market Report, wants to propose a tool resembling tax credits used by the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), he said on Tuesday.

France’s Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, announced on Monday a new production cycle for tritium, which is essential for the manufacture of nuclear weapons, using state utility EDF’s two civilian reactors.

The future of the Nature Restoration Law remains uncertain, and the position of key member states is still not clear ahead of an ambassador’s meeting on Friday (22 March) to prepare a final vote next Monday.

The European Parliament’s Industry, Research, and Energy committee voted on Wednesday to improve access for small businesses and startups to artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers, as well as strengthen environmental standards for such infrastructure.

Malta’s Socialist (S&D) Prime Minister Robert Abela and President of European Parliament Roberta Metsola, who is a member of the country’s opposition Nationalist Party (EPP), are trading blows over a decades-old debate on using the Maltese language in the institution.

Leftists in the European Parliament claimed the top spot in the ranking of political groups’ environmental performance published by the French environmental association Bloom on Wednesday, with those on the right relegated to the bottom of the table.

Lead-producing Bulgaria has the potential to be a major battery supplier and harness the economic opportunities of the green transition, but current EU policies prioritise lithium-ion batteries, participants heard at a conference in Brussels on Tuesday.

With the decision to expand NATO’s military base near the strategic Black Sea port of Constanta, Romania will have stronger security guarantees, a representative of the Romanian Defence Ministry told Euractiv on Tuesday.

Last but not least, check out this week’s Health Brief and the Green Brief.

Look out for…

• Europan Council summit on Thursday-Friday.
• Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski participates in debate on future of CAP on Thursday.
• Commissioner Kadri Simson participates in panel discussion at Nuclear Energy Summit 2024 on Thursday.

Views are the author’s

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]