Compromise struck overnight unravels within hours as France and other countries balk.
Leaders want to show solidarity with Ukraine as it resists Russia’s two-year-old war of aggression while taking care not to anger powerful constituents. | Ed Ram/Getty Images
European ambassadors failed Wednesday to endorse a decision on extending trade liberalization measures for Ukraine for another year, threatening to mar a summit at which leaders want to renew pledges of political, military and economic support to Kyiv.
EU ambassadors were supposed to approve a provisional deal struck between institutions overnight.
But several countries balked, asking for more time to assess the impact of the agreement, two European diplomats and one EU official said. All were granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks.
It’s an unwelcome twist on the eve of Thursday’s EU summit, at which leaders want to show solidarity with Ukraine as it resists Russia’s two-year-old war of aggression while taking care not to anger powerful constituents — including struggling farmers — who could sway June’s European election.
The compromise hammered out between negotiators from the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission would expand import caps to cover four additional agricultural products and require the EU executive to act more quickly in the event of a surge in imports.
To Kyiv’s relief, EU negotiators also decided against extending the 2022-2023 reference period for calculating the caps to include 2021, when imports from Ukraine into the EU were much lower.
But that was a red line for Paris, French Agricultural Minister Marc Fesneau said on Wednesday morning.
“The agreement is still not what we wanted it to be,” Fesneau said. He added that solidarity with Ukraine should not come “at the cost of excessive destabilization” of the European markets.
The remarks confirmed an earlier POLITICO report that France had joined Poland in calling for further restrictions on imports of Ukrainian products. Governments around Europe are under political siege from protesting farmers, who say they can’t compete with cheap imports because of the cost of the EU’s green bureaucracy.
In a separate vote, lawmakers on the European Parliament’s trade committee approved the compromise struck overnight. The decision to hold a vote caught some lawmakers by surprise, however, as they usually have to wait for the green light from ambassadors to approve the text. It bears the risk of institutions having to return to the negotiating table if ambassadors — who will reconvene next week — decide to make changes to the text.
Although the earlier latest setback complicates the process, negotiators are still hopeful the measures will be agreed upon before they expire early June.
Source: Politico
