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Russia's war of aggression has severely limited Ukraine's access to international markets, which is why the Commission facilitated the deployment of alternative transport routes known as "EU-Ukraine solidarity lanes".
While many improvements have been achieved in the past months, important logistical bottlenecks still remain. Indeed, infrastructure remains insufficient to handle the surge in traffic in particular at the borders between Ukraine and Member States. Equipment is still urgently needed and capacity is scarce resulting in high logistics costs, while there is also a high risk of storage facilities in the affected Member States reaching full capacity rapidly. There is therefore pressing need for improved connectivity by better coordinating transit, enhancing infrastructure and lowering overall logistics costs, thereby ensuring that wheat, maize, rapeseed (colza) and sunflower seed originating in Ukraine can move deeper into the Union and beyond as needed.
As a result of the high logistics costs and bottlenecks described above, there has been an increase in imports from Ukraine to the Member States close to Ukraine. These imports are saturating the storage capacity and logistical chains in particular in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Those circumstances affect the economic viability of local producers in those Member States.
On that basis, the Commission considers that exceptional circumstances are emerging that risk affecting the local Union producers. In light of those circumstances, it is therefore necessary to ensure that wheat, maize, rapeseed (colza) and sunflower seed originating in Ukraine, all of which compete for the same storage capacities, are released for free circulation or placed under the customs warehousing, free zone or inward processing procedures, only in Member States other than Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania or Slovakia.
However, that limitation does not affect the movement of those goods in or via Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania or Slovakia under the customs transit procedure to another Member State or to a country or territory outside the customs territory of the Union.
May 2, 2023/ Official Journal of the European Union/ European Union.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu
