Slovakia to Propose Talks on Ukrainian Grain at EU Agriculture Ministers Meeting

Bratislava, August 31 (TASR) - Slovakia will propose negotiations on Ukrainian grain at the next meeting of EU agriculture ministers, TASR was told by the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry's communication department on Thursday in response to the call by the 'We Are Family' party made earlier in the day. "At the next informal meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH) on September 4, Slovakia will open this topic under the miscellaneous item. Subsequently, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Jozef Bires will inform the government about the current position of the European Commission (EC) on addressing this issue and propose further steps," said the ministry. According to the Agriculture Ministry, for now, however, the information from the last meeting of the AGRIFISH Council as of the end of July is valid. At that meeting, the EC said that the decision to extend, or not to extend the extraordinary measures - the ban on the import of four selected commodities, will be adopted only after the harvest in the five bordering countries, when the data necessary for the final decision is available. The 'We Are Family' party has called on the Agriculture Ministry and the government to stand up for Slovak farmers and support a ban on imports of Ukrainian grain, and not one on transit. "We're asking Agriculture Minister Jozef Bires to propose [at a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Spain - ed. note] on Monday (September 4) to expand the discussion points to include the 'grain' issue. At the same time, we're asking Premier Ludovit Odor to support our farmers within the European Council and insist that the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain should continue at least until the end of this year," said parliamentary agriculture committee head Jaroslav Karahuta (We Are Family). am/mcs