Ukraine’s integration into the EU will change the EU’s agricultural support system.

According to Ukraine’s trade representative, Taras Kachka, the decision of the Committee of the European Parliament to extend duty-free trade for Ukrainian agricultural products was a chance to restore trade relations and prepare the ground for Ukraine and its agricultural sector to fully integrate into the EU.

He noted that the overwhelming support of MEPs is a sign that things are starting to move in the right direction.

“But this is only one stage in our long-term dialogue about the integration of Ukrainian agriculture into the EU,” Kachka said.

Becoming part of the bloc is another matter, and it will require systemic changes in the agricultural sectors on both sides of the border.

Kachka is convinced that EU legislators will have to start a serious discussion about the future of European agriculture and Ukraine’s place in it. This will lead to a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (SAP), whose subsidies make up a third of the bloc’s budget and are distributed according to the amount of farmed land.