EU Council will consider requirements for restricting agricultural imports from Ukraine

The EU Agriculture Council will consider the issue of a free trade agreement with Ukraine and further protection of the EU agricultural market from imports of Ukrainian agricultural products on Monday, January 26, at the request of Poland, as well as Hungary, Slovakia and Austria. This is reported by “European Pravda” with reference to Poland’s letter to the EU Council dated January 22, 2026 and the meeting agenda.

The discussion is scheduled for January 26 after 16:00 Kyiv time.

The four countries call for strengthening the protection of European farmers from what they believe to be the negative impact of imports of agricultural products from Ukraine. The document notes that the provisions of the current agreement with Ukraine, which are based on Article 29 of the Association Agreement, do not fully take into account the needs of the EU agricultural sector. In particular, the current safeguard mechanisms apply only to new trade preferences and do not cover most of the goods for which benefits were previously in effect.

Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Austria also insist on applying the same standards to Ukrainian imports as to EU producers. These include requirements for food safety, animal welfare, the use of pesticides and antibiotics, and climate standards. Until this is implemented, the countries are urged to refrain from further tariff liberalization.

The states pay special attention to the so-called sensitive sectors, in particular the production of sugar, meat, cereals, dairy products, vegetables and fruits, which, according to their estimates, are most affected by imports from Ukraine.

In addition, Poland and its partners propose to create a special compensation fund to compensate European farmers for losses arising from free trade agreements with large exporters of agricultural products, to which they include Ukraine.

Tags: restrictions, Ukraine, export, EU, Poland, agricultural products, Hungary, Austria