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The European Commission’s agricultural trade agreement with Ukraine will have serious consequences for Hungarian farmers, as it allows significantly larger quantities of grain, chicken meat, eggs, honey, and other agricultural products into the EU and Hungarian markets, said Csaba Dömötör, Fidesz MEP, in Brussels on Wednesday.
Speaking to Hungarian journalists, Csaba Dömötör recalled that on Monday, the European Commission signed an agricultural trade agreement with Ukraine, which he emphasized was another step towards opening EU markets to Ukraine.
He pointed out that the express aim of the agreement is to prepare Ukraine for full EU membership. To this end, the agreement specifies the quantities of certain products that will be allowed into the EU from Ukraine duty-free. The exact quotas have not yet been made public, but compared to the previous free trade agreement between the parties, significantly larger quantities of grain, chicken meat, eggs, honey, and other agricultural products should be allowed into the EU and, accordingly, into the Hungarian market. This will have serious consequences for Hungarian farmers, he said.
Although it has been announced that Ukraine will have to adopt certain EU rules, anonymous EU bureaucrats have admitted that no one will be sent to Ukraine to check whether this is happening. This is a crucial issue because, according to the Brussels-based think tank Farm Europe, at least 68 pesticides that have long been banned in the European Union are currently being used in Ukraine, and genetically modified crops are also being grown, he emphasized.
In his words, it is an unavoidable fact that the agreement does not benefit small Ukrainian farmers, but rather agricultural holdings farming hundreds of thousands of hectares, which are largely owned by Western European and American giants and investment funds.
“The business opportunity is theirs, and the consequences will be borne by European farmers, including those in Hungary. That is how the plan looks, so do not expect us to like it,” he said.
MEP Dömötör noted that Hungarian farmers already have experience with market liberalization. In 2022, the European Commission completely opened the markets to Ukrainian agricultural products, which, as he put it, caused a “huge shock” in the Central and Eastern European region. It pushed down purchase prices and caused considerable damage to Hungarian farmers as well. The Hungarian Government therefore decided, within its own competence, to ban imports, Dömötör pointed out, adding that the current agreement would override this, forcing Hungary to open its markets.
“This agreement was put together by Péter Magyar’s bosses, sponsors, and nominators in Brussels,” said Dömötör, adding:
The president of the opposition party Tisza could have spoken out against this, but he did not. He does not attend meetings, he is on vacation during the current week of committee meetings because he knows his cronies will vote for him. His party in Brussels will take care of everything behind the scenes. He will just deny everything, and if anyone even raises the issue of this agreement, he will wish them good luck,”
he said.
Regardless, the European Commission’s plans are clear: they have said that they want to complete the enlargement process with Ukraine during this cycle and even begin opening up European markets to the country before then, he pointed out. This is only the beginning, because if Ukraine becomes a full member of the EU, agricultural subsidies in the current Member States would be significantly reduced, by at least 15-20 percent, under the current rules, he said. That is why they want to reform the agricultural subsidy system so that this does not become apparent, he said.
“In line with the results of Voks2025 referendum, we do not support these plans. It is unacceptable that the European Commission wants to conclude an agreement over the heads of farmers, Hungarian farmers, and that it is concluding an agreement to the detriment of farmers,” the Fidesz MEP concluded.
Via MTI; Featured photo: Pexels