BRATISLAVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th June, 2023) Slovakia is in favor of extending the ban on Ukrainian grain imports, which is due to expire on September 15, and also considers the amount of compensation for the local farmers determined by the European Commission to be insufficient, Slovak Agriculture Minister Josef Bires said on Tuesday.
On May 2, the European Commission banned the sale of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed, and sunflower seed in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia until June 5 in a bid to "alleviate logistical bottlenecks," but allowed their circulation in other European markets. The ban was later extended until September 15.
"We must use every opportunity to prolong this measure," Bires was quoted by Slovak news website Teraz as saying following a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Luxembourg.
He said that an uncontrolled influx of Ukrainian grain would certainly harm Slovak farmers, adding that the total of 5.24 million Euros ($5.7 million) was not enough to compensate for that.� �
"Five million euros is an insufficient compensation amount for Slovakia. There is an additional (aid) package from national sources, but it will be a problem to split it so that objectivity is preserved and that these compensations help farmers at least to some extent," he was quoted as saying.� �
Earlier in the day, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also spoke in favor of extending the EU ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural goods to European countries bordering Ukraine.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said in early May that 100 million euros allocated by the European Commission would be split between five nations that reported difficulties due to the duty-free influx of cheap Ukrainian grain. Slovakia was set to receive the smallest compensation, while the largest amount of about 40 million euros was allocated for Poland.
In late March, the prime ministers of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia published a joint open letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, calling for measures to counteract the negative effects of the increased imports of Ukrainian grain.� � �
�On April 15, Poland, together with Hungary, banned imports of Ukrainian agricultural products until June 30, citing the need to protect domestic farmers from the uncontrolled influx of cheap grain. Slovakia followed suit on April 17 and Bulgaria on April 19.
On April 28, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia agreed with the European Commission's proposition to lift national restrictions on Ukrainian import of grains and crops. In turn, the commission pledged to provide 100 million euros ($109 million) of financial aid for these countries' farmers.
