In plenary today, Members of the Parliament finally decided to show their understanding for affected EU producers and manufacturers by adopting the limited, yet very necessary amendments, to the Commission’s proposal on Ukraine ATMs.
Our organisations have never put into question the need to support Ukraine and have taken on a significant burden over the past two years. Hence, we welcome the support to the EU farming community shown today by MEPs. The amendments put forward by most of the political groups, introduce an improvement to the reference period (2021/2022/2023), although 2021/2022 would have been preferable. In addition, the inclusion of other affected commodities, such as for example cereals or honey in the automatic triggering system of the safeguard measures, is most welcomed, as it addresses the wider concern of different Member States that are increasingly feeling the effects of this trade liberalisation. Nevertheless, it will be necessary to ensure that these measures are effective.
This decision by the European Parliament sends out a strong signal, but caution remains the watchword as this position still needs to be confirmed in trilogue. It is now essential for the European Parliament to defend its negotiation mandate in the trilogue!
With these new measures entering into force only from June 2024, our organisations remain extremely vigilant as to the actual impact of the on-going trade liberalisation across all sectors of agricultural production.
Finally, it is important to continue a proactive discussion on how our trading relationship with Ukraine will evolve in the future past June 2025, with particular attention to the vulnerability of the aforementioned sensitive sectors.
On behalf of the following associations:
- AVEC – Association of Poultry Processors and Poultry Trade in the EU countries
- CEFS – European Association of Sugar Manufacturers
- CEPM – European Confederation of Maize Production
- CIBE – International Confederation of European Beet Growers
- COPA-COGECA – The united voice of farmers and their cooperatives in the European Union
- EUWEP – European Union of Wholesale with Eggs, Egg Products, Poultry and Game
Fonte: Copa Cogeca
