MOSCOW, Feb. 13 Ukraine may consider the possibility refusal of EU agricultural subsidies, a condition for this should be a softening of its demands on the environmental agenda during negotiations on Kiev’s accession to the EU, an unnamed senior Ukrainian official told Reuters.
In October, the Financial Times newspaper, citing internal estimates of the overall EU budget that came into its possession, wrote that within the framework of the EU's common agricultural policy, Kyiv can count on receiving 96.5 billion euros over seven years.
As the official noted, the EU's green agenda could make business difficult for Ukrainian farmers. “The ideal negotiation strategy is to achieve fewer restrictions on trade, fewer environmental restrictions for Ukrainian farmers… We are ready to exchange subsidies for this,” the agency’s interlocutor said, noting that due to these supposed subsidies, Ukrainian agriculture could become “less dynamic.» “Subsidies in agriculture very often play a bad role when they become a painkiller and you get used to them. When you live in a subsidy system, you are tied to them. If you have a subsidy for carrots, only carrots will be sown,” the official added .
The EU summit on December 14 decided to launch negotiations on future membership of the European Union with Ukraine and Moldova. In June 2022, the EU granted EU candidate country status to Ukraine and Moldova, setting several strict conditions for the formal start of accession negotiations. The EU has repeatedly admitted that such a decision was largely symbolic in order to support Kyiv and Chisinau in their confrontation with Moscow.
The status of an EU candidate country, as well as the start of negotiations, do not necessarily mean that the country will join the European Union; these steps also do not oblige Brussels to anything. Obtaining candidate status is only the beginning of a rather long journey towards joining the EU. Turkey has been in candidate status since 1999, and has been “conducting” membership negotiations with the EU since 2005, North Macedonia has been a candidate since 2005, Montenegro since 2010, Serbia since 2012. Croatia was the last country to join the EU — this happened in 2013, the process took 10 years.