Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union (EU) lifted import tariffs for Ukrainian commodities to maintain Ukrainian exports to the world market. This led to a considerable decrease of prices for cereals and oilseeds in affected Member States. The European Commission has allocated 56 million euros to farmers in Bulgaria, Poland and Romania to compensate them for losses caused by this opening of the EU. This money has been supplemented by another 56 million euros from national budgets. As the funds were insufficient to fully compensate farmers for their losses, the three Member States had to define selective criteria when deciding on the distribution of the funds. Bulgaria opted for acreage-based compensation payments for sunflower producers, and Romania chose to support farmers storing wheat, thereby excluding smaller producers without storage facilities. Poland compensated a large range of crop producers but cut the amount paid to the largest farms. A comparison of these three approaches is a good case in point for demonstrating the interplay between emergency relief and political priorities of national governments.
