Results of
today's extraordinary Agriculture and Fisheries
Council
Russian ban on EU products
Ministers debated today the impact and implications of the Russian ban on imports of EU agricultural products in place since 6 August this year.
Emergency market measures on fruit and vegetables and milk sector have already been decided by the Commission. Most of the member states recognised the opportunity of this support, while many called for enlarging the scope of these measures and diversifying the tools used. Well targeted compensation measures for certain of the most affected producers could be envisaged. Furthermore, the debate in the Council focused on medium and long term measures such as seeking new markets for EU products.
The Italian Minister for Agricultural, Food and Forestry and president of the Council, Maurizio Martina said: "During this extraordinary meeting, ministers have confirmed the need for a coordinated, unanimous reply and with solidarity at EU level to tackle the negative effects linked to the Russian ban on EU agricultural products. A positive evaluation of the measures taken by the Commission has been confirmed, although we have stressed the need to continuously monitor the market evolution and to prepare every further and concrete tool for intervention towards the producers which have been penalised by the ban. Due to the fact that the crisis originated from independent reasons not linked to the agricultural markets, but from the political situation, there was unanimous consensus on the need to put in place resources additional to those agreed under the agricultural budget, so that farmers are not further penalized".
