The European Commission proposed on Wednesday that all Ukrainian imports to the European Union remain duty-free until at least June 2025, although some agricultural products will be restricted, in an attempt to quell growing unrest among farmers.
Imports of Ukrainian sugar, poultry meat, and eggs, which increased sharply last year, will be capped at levels from 2022 and 2023.
The duty-free measures were first introduced after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to help the country's economy, which is heavily dependent on agricultural and steel exports. They removed duties that remained unenforced under the EU's 2014 free trade agreement with Ukraine.
The EU also announced that it would apply similar duty-free measures to its trade agreement with Moldova.
"This proposal strikes the right balance: we continue our economic support for both countries, while fully taking into account the interests and sensitivities of EU farmers," said Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis in a statement.
Initially, it seemed unlikely that the Commission would impose restrictions on Ukrainian products, but it succumbed to pressure from its own member of the Commission, Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, as well as the Polish and French governments, who were influenced by protesting farmers.
Farmers' protests, which have spread to several EU countries, directly contributed to the Commission's change of position, according to EU officials close to the discussions, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the record.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — a staunch ally of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — does not want to alienate European farmers, a key constituency for her center-right European People's Party, ahead of EU elections in June, officials said.
Commissioner Wojciechowski was the only member of her team who did not support the expansion of free trade measures after insisting on restricting imports at pre-war levels.
The Commission's proposal must now be approved by EU countries and the European Parliament.
The Commission also announced that EU farmers will be exempted from organic farming measures that require them to set aside part of their land to promote biodiversity.
The move follows pressure from France and comes ahead of President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Brussels on Thursday, where he will meet senior EU officials on the sidelines of a special European Council meeting to oppose a trade deal with the Mercosur group of Latin American countries.
Under the relaxed green rules in agriculture, farmers will be able to continue to receive subsidies from the Common Agricultural Policy budget by growing cash crops and nitrogen-fixing crops on allocated land, provided that they do not use pesticides there.
Farmers were granted an exemption from the requirements in 2023, but the Commission previously said it was legally impossible to introduce a similar measure for this year.
The backlash against green rules that require at least 4 percent of land to be set aside for conservation has become a common theme in protests spreading across the EU, prompting the Commission to become more open to a workaround.
Brussels' decision to allow crops to be grown on uncultivated land in 2023 has been widely criticized, including by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and environmental groups, who have noted that little food for human consumption is grown on these lands.
Instead, it was used to grow animal feed crops such as corn and soybeans, as well as sunflowers.
