Agriculture Minister comment on Ukraine grain bans

Food, Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Jacob Jensen is directing criticism at Hungary, Slovakia and Poland in the current grain dispute as they are not prepared to lift their import ban on Ukrainian grain. “From the Danish side, we do not believe that this is the right way to go. Even when the situation is difficult, as it really is, we need to stand together to find the solutions needed,” he says. Poland, along with Hungary and Slovakia, have agreed that they will not lift an earlier ban on imports of Ukrainian grain in order to benefit their own farmers. In doing so, they go against the European Commission, whose own ban expired last week and which has subsequently not been extended. “We are of course aware that this is a challenge for several of the local neighbouring countries to Ukraine. But this does not change the fact that we need to find common solutions and not make individual national import restrictions, as is the case here,” says Jacob Jensen. He stresses that we must not start sacrificing the Single Market, which is part of the “fundamental pillar of the whole EU”. /ritzau/