Agriculture Minister István Nagy said an EU decree taking effect on Saturday will replace member states’ respective bans on Ukrainian grain imports.
Speaking at the Záhony border crossing, Minister Nagy said Hungary’s earlier ban on imports of wheat, maize, rape- and sunflower seeds would stay in effect. He added that the EU decree would be “as rigorously enforced as the national measures”. Joint action by Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania has “made Brussels bureaucrats step back … at last, they understood that an influx of Ukrainian farm products created such chaos on the European Union’s internal markets that they had to handle it”. The EU’s decision will “at last facilitate trading in Hungary”, the minister said, adding that “the wheat produced by Hungarian farmers will now go to markets where it was intended”. Nagy said there was a verbal agreement with EU decision-makers that the European ban would be maintained after June 5, but added that he was “expecting a relevant written declaration”.