Lithuanian vice-minister to urge EU to tighten restrictions on Russian grain imports

VILNIUS – At Tuesday's meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council, Lithuanian Deputy Agriculture Minister Vytautas Abukauskas will call on the bloc's bodies to tighten restrictions on Russian food product and cereal imports.

"The European Commission will be urged to take stricter measures to restrict imports of Russian and Belarusian food products and Russian cereals into the EU market," the Agriculture Ministry has told BNS. 

Among other issues, the council will also discuss the current crisis situation in the agricultural sector, challenges for European agriculture and forestry businesses posed by the deforestation regulation, and the outcome of a meeting of Nordic-Baltic ministers responsible for agriculture, it said.

Tuesday's meeting of EU ministers responsible for agriculture and fisheries comes a few days after the Commission unveiled its proposal to impose "prohibitive tariffs" on Russian and Belarusian grain imports into the bloc. 

Last Wednesday, Lithuania, along with Latvia, Estonia, Poland and the Czech Republic, earlier this week urged the EU's executive body to impose a full ban on grain imports from Russia and Belarus.