On 5 April 2024, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania hosted a trilateral meeting of parliamentarians from Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland. The Ukrainian Parliament was represented by Ivan Chaikivskyi, the Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy.
During the meeting, the parties discussed problematic issues of Ukrainian agricultural exports, possible consensus solutions to resolve the current situation, and measures to further support Ukraine and food security in the world.
In particular, following a fruitful discussion, a declaration was drafted together with the Lithuanian and Polish parliamentarians to facilitate the implementation of duty-free and quota-free exports of agricultural products from Ukraine.
Ivan Chaikivskyi noted that this declaration contains three basic requirements:
- introduce a legal ban on imports of agricultural products from russia and belarus to the EU;
- to ban the transit of agricultural products of russian and belarusian origin through the EU;
- to buy back surplus agricultural products on the EU market if the price was critically low, thereby removing the burden of excess goods on the market.
At the same time, the parties count on the support of such an initiative within the EU Parliament.
The meeting was attended by Viktoras Pranckietis, the Chairman of the Committee on Rural Affairs of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, Kazys Starkevičius, the Chairman of the Committee on Economic Affairs of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, Mirosław Maliszewski, the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the Seimas of the Republic of Poland, Deputy Ministers of Agriculture of the participating countries, Andrii Dykun, the Chairman of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council, and representatives of leading agricultural associations of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland.