EU emergency brake required: Danger for domestic farmers through Ukraine imports!

EU emergency brake required: Danger for domestic farmers through Ukraine imports!

Brüssel, Belgien - The Nöbauer from Austria asked the EU to pull an emergency brake from Ukraine in the EU. Since then, imports of Ukrainian agricultural products have increased rapidly in 2022, which, according to the EU Commission, has led to an increase by up to 240 % compared to the years before the war. Bread grain, honey, corn, sugar and poultry are particularly affected. This is a major challenge for domestic farmers who are difficult for these dumping prices, as well as [ots.at] (https://www.ots.at/presseaus-sung/ots_20250528_ots0119/noebauernbund-bundt-notbremse-e-bei-bei-bei-bieb

EU MP Alexander Bernhuber and the Lower Austria farmers' association director Paul Nemecek warn of the consequences of these market distortions. The domestic farmers see the quality of the imported products as problematic, since they sometimes do not correspond to the strict environmental, animal welfare and social standards of the EU. Products such as cage eggs and poultry poultry are just a few examples included in the deliveries from Ukraine. Therefore, call for a return to a system with tariffs and quantity limits, as was the case before the war.

competition and customs exemption

The situation is even more complicated by the decision to extend the customs exemption for Ukrainian agricultural products. This should be due in June. The domestic farmers fear that renewed extension could lead to a livelier -threatening distortion of competition. In the past few months, the Ukrainian agricultural imports have significantly pressed the prices for local products. The domestic farmers can no longer keep up, as Bernhuber urgently emphasizes. The gap between the import prices and those domestic products are getting bigger and the domestic agricultural producers are increasingly under pressure, so that a rethink seems necessary.

EU measures and future steps

The European Union has reacted to the pressure of farmers and plans to reintroduce tariffs to large amounts of certain Ukrainian agricultural products. These measures should be effective from June 2025, but still require formal approval by the parliament and the EU countries. While no tariffs should apply to wheat for the time being, tariffs are introduced for other affected products such as eggs, poultry, sugar and honey as soon as a duty-free contingent is exceeded, so [https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/eu-zoelle-agrarprodukte-ucraine-100.html).

The upcoming decisions are crucial to find a balance between the necessary support for Ukraine and ensuring security for supply for European farmers. The newly founded European Farmers' Association, initiated by Bernhuber and Nemecek, should support the concerns directly in Brussels and stand up for the interests of agricultural producers.