Necessary to find solutions for transporting Ukraine grain through Baltic ports - Nauseda

VILNIUS - Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda says it is necessary to find solutions, with the support of the European Commission (EC), that would allow to use the Baltic Sea ports for Ukrainian grain exports.

"It is our duty to help Ukrainians export grain through the Baltic Sea ports. With the support of the European Commission, we need to find administrative, financial and infrastructural solutions to exploit the capacities of the Baltic Sea ports and carriers," he said at a press conference held on Friday after a meeting with European Commission Executive Vice-President and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.

Dombrovskis said in an interview to BNS that the Commission is looking at ways to reduce the cost of transporting Ukrainian grain by addressing procedural or infrastructural problems. According to him, subsidies for the transport of grain through Klaipeda and other European ports are not being considered in Brussels.

“Rather, we look what can be done to bring down transport costs through targeted administrative or infrastructure improvements,” Dombrovskis said.

According to him, the Commission is supportive of Lithuania’s proposal to move customs formalities, phito-sanitary checks and other procedures from the Ukrainian-Polish border to Community ports such as Klaipeda.