Ukraine invasion: EU Agriculture ministers held an extraordinary meeting

Agriculture ministers held an extraordinary meeting to discuss the risk of significant pressures facing the agriculture and agri-food sectors in the wake of the Ukraine invasion.

The aim of the meeting was to share initial information and forecasts on supply and prices, identify issues requiring particular vigilance, and consider measures that could be taken both internally and in terms of international cooperation.

Following the meeting and the statements by ministers, the EU commissioner for agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, expressed his intention to:

• activate crisis monitoring tools, in particular the European food security crisis preparedness and response mechanism set up by the Commission, and the high-level working group on the pigmeat sector announced at the Council meeting on 21 February;
• consider introducing exceptional measures under the Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation aimed at the sectors most affected by the rise in input costs;
• consider adopting measures aimed at securing and freeing up Europe’s production capacity in 2022, such as using fallow land for protein crops.

These measures will be discussed by the Special Committee on Agriculture as well as at the next Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 21 March.

A number of member states also called for a more long-term strategy and set of tools to be put in place as soon as possible with a view to improving the EU’s resilience and food sovereignty, and for food sovereignty to be incorporated into the EU’s agricultural policy.