The EU is confident of striking a deal with Russia to avoid wider restrictions on its plant and vegetable exports but first wants to see Moscow relax bans on individual EU countries, its food safety chief said on Monday. Russia has banned imports of a string of farm products from EU states, including Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, saying they do not meet sanitary standards. Poland has also accused Moscow of foot-dragging on accepting its dairy exports.
"The signs are positive. But we have not solved the problem yet, although at least there seems to be goodwill on both sides," said Markos Kyprianou, EU Commissioner for Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
Kyprianou said it would be preferable if Russia could first agree with individual EU countries on specific problem areas, before a wider EU solution on certificates might be found.
"I would be even happier if a temporary solution was found on bilateral issues rather than on a Community level - because there are continuous problems with individual member states - pending a solution for the whole Community," he told reporters. Last week, Russia indicated it might be ready to lift bans on certain items. But it has shown no sign of altering its April 1 deadline for when it wants a common EU safety certificate for exports, which would replace 25 different national versions.
The veiled threat, diplomats say, is that Russia could impose a blanket ban on EU plant and vegetable products from April 1 if there is no common certificate in place.
Speaking to EU farm ministers at a regular meeting in Brussels, Kyprianou warned of the "threat of serious disruption" to EU-Russia trade from April 1 if the row was not resolved.
European diplomats and analysts have seen the new Russian food bans as a warning that it wants the EU to hold to the bargain struck in an earlier dispute over meat or as an attempt to win a bigger share of the EU wheat import market.
The meat row was resolved in September, freeing Russian meat imports from the 25-member bloc worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.70 billion) a year.