{"id":539035,"date":"2025-10-31T04:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T04:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/539035\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T04:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T04:01:12","slug":"poland-hungary-and-slovakia-defy-brussels-as-ukraine-trade-deal-takes-effect-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/539035\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland, Hungary and Slovakia defy Brussels as Ukraine trade deal takes effect \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe see no justification for maintaining these national measures,\u201d Commission Deputy Spokesperson Olof Gill said Thursday, a day after a new European Union trade agreement meant to address EU members’ concerns about negative impacts from a flow of Ukrainian imports took effect.<\/p>\n

In an email, Gill said the EU executive would \u201cintensify its contact\u201d with the intransigent capitals. Pressed on whether the Commission had ruled out launching infringement proceedings, Gill replied: “All options are on the table.”<\/p>\n

Brussels has been reluctant to act since the bans were introduced in 2023<\/a>, hoping the updated trade deal<\/a> would make them redundant. Officials familiar with the talks say politics are also playing a part. Taking Poland to court could strain relations with Donald Tusk\u2019s pro-EU government<\/a>, while singling out Hungary and Slovakia would look like a double standard.<\/p>\n

Poland\u2019s agriculture ministry told POLITICO earlier this week that the government\u2019s restrictions \u201cdo not automatically lift\u201d under the new EU deal and remain in force.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Likewise, Budapest will maintain its national-level protection, Hungary\u2019s Agriculture Minister Istv\u00e1n Nagy said, while accusing Brussels of \u201cprioritizing Ukrainian interests.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

His Slovak counterpart, Richard Tak\u00e1\u010d, called the new deal\u2019s safeguards \u201cnot strong enough\u201d<\/a> to protect local producers, suggesting Bratislava will follow suit.<\/p>\n

\"\"The bans, covering Ukrainian grain and other farm products, breach EU single market rules that prohibit national trade barriers. | Ukrinform\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The updated agreement, approved by EU countries<\/a> on Oct. 13, replaces the temporary trade liberalization introduced after Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion, providing a more stable framework for Ukrainian exports while adding safeguards for European farmers.<\/p>\n

This story has been updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe see no justification for maintaining these national measures,\u201d Commission Deputy Spokesperson Olof Gill said Thursday, a day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[3971,2000,299,1214,6644,10779,7062,2190,475,770,173845,332,2558,1201,657,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-539035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-agriculture","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-exports","12":"tag-farmers","13":"tag-farms","14":"tag-grains","15":"tag-hungary","16":"tag-imports","17":"tag-poland","18":"tag-richard-takac","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-slovakia","21":"tag-trade","22":"tag-ukraine","23":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115466790122721784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}