I fertilizers, Russian “Trojan horse” for circumvent European Union restrictions, using precisely that gas "stopped" by EU sanctions. Gio, why Moscow uses it to make low-cost fertilizers what then exports to Europe without any problems. In short: stopped on one side, it returns to Europe on the other in the form of fertilizers. "The same billions of euros that previously fed the Russian budget through gas pipelines like Nord Stream, now feed the Russian war budget through exports of fertilizers made with the same gas", he denounces in a question Mariusz Kaminski (Ecr), member of the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament. Russian Federation “it is using sanctioned gas to produce cheap fertilizers, huge quantities of which end up in Europe,” the Polish MEP further emphasizes.
Fertilizers: EU's dependence on foreign markets
The situation is known to the European Commission, also because theEU cannot do without fertilizers being highly dependent on the foreign market, while vice versa the Russia is the world's second largest producer after Canada, followed by Belarus and China (USGS data). But there is the problem "of balancing effective sanctions against Russia with the specific economic needs of its member states and partners" - replied the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU, Kaja kallas– the Commission is concerned about the EU's continued dependence on certain types of Russian fertilisers and is considering ways to reduce it.”
The EU's difficulties: between sanctions and dependence on the Russian market
And not even ten days ago the European Commission he proposed to impose new sanctions on agricultural products and nitrogen fertilizers from Russia but also from Belarus. But the fact that the problem is far from easy to solve is demonstrated by the flurry of critical reactions that have arrived from the entire Italian agricultural world, pre-occupied because raising the sanctions could result in a price increase of the same fertilizers and consequently on the costs that agricultural businesses would have to bear, with a reduction in competitiveness and inevitable repercussions on prices to the detriment of consumers.
