EU to Serbia: Russian market is ours

EU to Serbia: Russian market is ours

This was made clear last Friday by EU foreign ministers, although, speaking from a purely international legal point of view, candidate countries cannot be asked to prevent their companies and food exporters who would like to meet the growing demand of their Russian partners, the agency was told by sources at the European Commission in Brussels.

Commission officials wanted to emphasize that this was "more a question of morality and solidarity" with the EU, noting that EU ministers said the goal of European sanctions against Russia was to "urgently achieve a political, sustainable solution" to the Ukrainian crisis.

And, as they explained, "to ensure the unity of the international community and to maintain international law, the European Union expects third countries and candidates to refrain from making use of the new trade opportunities that opened up with the introduction of these measures."

After a series of western sanctions aimed against it, Russia earlier this month decided to respond by banning for one year food imports from the EU, the U.S, and several other countries.

Analyses offered by the media and EU officials concluded that "the somewhat unexpected Russian counter-sanctions" will cause damages worth "several hundred million" to EU producers, so calculations have also been made about where Russia could find replacements for the food it previously bought from the EU.

Thus, the Spanish newspaper El Pais recently ran a headline claiming that the country's famous Serrano ham will now be replaced by "Serbian meat products known for their quality" - quoting a Russian food importer.

The European Commission on Tuesday approved a compensation of EUR 125 million in order to at least partially compensate producers of fruits and vegetables from the EU, mostly Poles, Lithuanians, Bulgarians, and the Dutch.

Measures to compensate producers of meat, meat products and fish will follow, and the European Commission sources told Beta that it was also worrying that powerful food producers in Turkey, a candidate for membership, are already making deals to significantly increase their sales in the Russian market.

EU countries last year exported food and other agricultural products worth EUR 11.8 billion to Russia, of which German goods amounted to EUR 1.6 billion, while the Netherlands and Poland sold EUR 1.2 billion each.

The EU also criticizes other countries - although in this case it is unable to demand "solidarity from candidates" or argue about "moral reasons" - and they include Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, major exporters of meat and other agricultural products that will undoubtedly benefit greatly from the Russian counter measures.

Switzerland has made it clear it would not accept any offer from EU producers to use its companies to bypass the Russian sanctions.

But, Swiss cheese and coffee producers, in particular, are convinced that they will now significantly increase their own exports to Russia.

The European Union has a fund of EUR 420 million for emergency aid for farmers who suffer sudden damages, which, according to reports, "will certainly be used now."

Solidarity

International diplomatic officials in Brussels told the Beta news agency that "the EU was somewhat surprised and angry at all membership candidates" - because they believe that refraining from taking the place of European exporters to the Russian market is a matter of "solidarity, and shared values."

These unnamed officials therefore noted that "the next time the EU is supposed to express solidarity with the candidates, it will keep in mind the kind of solidarity they have shown towards the EU when it needed it."