Consensus is a concept that is often tested across the European Union.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, divisions over issues such as military aid and Ukraine’s candidacy to the European Union challenged an overarching united front.
Last week, the EU’s approach to dealing with one of Russia’s closest allies – China – was also called into question after French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks that Europe should not be “vassals” of Washington or Beijing with regard to Taiwan.
And now, Ukrainian grain threatens to split the union.
Amid the recent surge in cheap grain and agricultural products from Ukraine, Poland and Hungary announced temporary bans on imports on Saturday, to protect farmers’ interests. Slovakia joined them on Monday and Bulgaria on Wednesday.
Romania, another country that has seen farmers’ protests over the issue, has stopped short of banning it yet.
While Ukraine has acknowledged the concerns of European farmers, authorities in Kyiv say Ukrainians are having a harder time.
However, there are some indications that the crisis is abating.
Senior EU officials denounced the measures, but promised to solve the problem with money – and suggested millions of euros more to support farmers on the continent.
After talks with his Polish counterparts in Warsaw, Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky confirmed on Wednesday that the transit of Ukrainian grain and food products through Poland would resume.
Ukraine is also set to hold talks with other embargoed EU countries later this week.
After the start of the Russo War, Moscow blocked shipping routes from the Black Sea ports, impeding Ukrainian ships from transporting grain and other agricultural products to the rest of the world.
The blockade ended in August last year with a deal signed by Russia and Ukraine to resume exports.
But Solsky raised concerns about the status of that agreement with Moscow – which is set to expire on May 18.
He said it was “impossible to predict how many ships Moscow will allow passage”.
Meanwhile, Russia has accused Ukraine of obstructing ship inspections in Turkey.
According to the European Union, as of March 2023, more than 23 million tons of cereals and other foodstuffs have been exported via the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
To ensure that there are no more obstacles to global exports, the EU unanimously agreed to raise all duties on Ukrainian grain and introduced “solidarity corridors” for grain transit last year.
More than a year after the war, this move by the bloc began to anger farmers across eastern and central Europe.
Ukrainian grain must reach the countries that need it most urgently. But at the same time, this makes it difficult for countries like Romania, which is a net exporter of grains where more than half of our domestic production is exported,” Alina Cretu, Executive Director of the Romanian Forum of Professional Growers and Processors, told Al Jazeera.
“If some local merchants buy these grains from Ukraine, instead of buying from local farmers, which is already happening now, our farmers will face bankruptcy because we cannot compete with Ukrainian grain prices,” she said.
“We feel that the EU is not clear what the situation is for farmers like us,” said Cretu, who lives on a farm with her husband in southeastern Romania, where they grow wheat, barley, corn and sunflower.
Farmers’ unions in Poland and Central and Eastern European countries have expressed similar sentiments.
How do EU officials deal with the crisis?
The European Commission rejected the import ban and said in a statement that “the EU’s trade policy is of exclusive jurisdiction, and therefore unilateral measures are unacceptable.”
Mats Cuvelier, a Brussels-based lawyer who focuses on European and international trade, told Al Jazeera that this does not prevent EU member states from banning agricultural products from entering the EU if they decide the products do not meet specific issues – such as EU sanitary requirements. Standards.
“Slovakia, for example, seems to have justified its ban on the import of Ukrainian grain on the grounds that it has detected pesticides that are not permitted in the European Union,” he said.
Slovak Agriculture Minister Samuel Vulkan said the ban is mainly a measure to protect the Slovak agro-food sector and the health of consumers, but added that transit of Ukrainian grain and other products through Slovakia could continue.
EU officials will discuss the ban this week.
Cuvilliers added that while the European Commission could initiate infringement proceedings against an EU member state if it did not comply with the trade bloc’s laws, he expected the Commission to opt for a less confrontational solution such as providing additional support to affected farmers.
In March, European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski allocated 29.5 million euros ($32 million) to Poland, 16.75 million euros ($18 million) to Bulgaria and 10.05 million euros ($11 million) to Romania, in a bid to support farmers.
On Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen, the chair of the commission, suggested that an additional 100 million euros ($110 million) support fund for farmers might help.
But Jacob Funk Kierkegaard, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Brussels, told Al Jazeera the money would not solve the underlying issues because for countries like Poland and Hungary the bloc would have to deal first with its continued political meat.
Moreover, amid inflated food prices, some EU countries may be secretly happy with cheap Ukrainian grain. So negotiations over these import bans, which are illegal under EU law, will be difficult.
The European Union has been withholding 138 billion euros ($151 billion) in funds from Poland and Hungary in a bid to get the countries to respect the rule of law.
“Besides these budgetary tensions with the EU, the Polish government is also under pressure on the way to elections and it needs the support of rural voter groups, otherwise the government will lose the elections,” Kierkegaard said.
“In the case of Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is also more of an opportunist because he often puts pressure within the bloc when decisions have to be taken unanimously. For Slovakia, it’s election season too, so the politics are the same. But if Poland drops the ban, the union states Other European countries will follow suit as well.
Cretu, a Romanian farmer, has acknowledged that the grain deal is important for Ukraine, but in the long term he wants to see a bigger EU slice and support for agricultural workers within the bloc.
“We need more financial support and investments in improving logistical facilities, such as transportation and infrastructure, modernizing ports and increasing storage capacities,” she said.
Kierkegaard also said that the EU should get smaller and focus on the bigger picture.
While there is support for Ukraine across the bloc, domestic concerns will still temper him. So while the discussions to address each member state’s issues are difficult, they are important for achieving EU consensus.”
If not, Russia will benefit from these divisions and can use them to their advantage.
Priyanka Shankar contributed to this report.