Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Belgian presidency of the EU Council are meeting today for further talks on restricting agricultural imports from Ukraine, Politico reports, UNN writes.
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As stated, this happened after "Poland and France decided that the last compromise did not go far enough".
Today, the talks will reportedly begin at 16:00 local time, and a meeting of European ambassadors is scheduled for 19:00 to "approve the results of the negotiations.
"The opinion of the EU Council has substantially converged with that of the European Parliament, and the countries have agreed to stricter restrictions," the publication points out.
At the same time, he notes that in a plenary vote last month, the European Parliament "approved an initiative by the European People's Party (EPP), which likes to position itself as pro-Ukrainian, to tighten import restrictions and extend them to more products, including grain.
The publication writes about "a victory for the powerful Copa-Cogeca farmers' lobby, which convinced lawmakers to partially back down on trade liberalization with Ukraine, introduced after Russia's full-scale invasion." "But while the outcome is good for the lobbying community and its members, it is bad not only for Ukraine, which depends on agricultural export revenues, but also for EU citizens who will face higher food prices due to less competition and reduced supply," the newspaper writes.
At the same time, the publication notes that "the European Parliament still does not have a unified position." "While the two largest groups, the EPP and the Socialists & Democrats, are ready to sign on to additional restrictions, others, including Renew Europe and the Greens, want to stick with the original compromise," the publication says.