Brussels calls on EU countries to ‘engage constructively’ on Ukraine grain

The European Commission on Sunday urged Poland, Hungary and Slovakia to be constructive after announcing they would impose their own bans on Ukrainian grain following the EU executive’s decision to let its restrictive measure end.

"We are aware of some member states’ announcements in respect to unilateral measures. What is important right now is that all countries work in the spirit of compromise and engage constructively," a Commission spokeswoman said, according to Reuters. "Our focus now is to put in place and make work the new system just announced."

She added that a meeting on the subject with all interested EU countries would take place on Monday.

Brussels announced on Friday that it would not extend a ban on Ukrainian grain imports that applied to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria — a measure that expired on Friday.

Imports of Ukrainian grain, including wheat and maize, had been blocked from the territory of these five countries under an agreement reached with Brussels earlier this year, in a bid to protect farmers from an influx of cheap produce from their war-torn neighbor.