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Ukraine-EU farm export dispute: Are there any consequences?
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics - this week from the airport in Madrid.
What are the consequence of the dispute now between Ukraine and the European Union on farm exports?
It is not really a dispute with the European Union because the commission has said that farm exports are okay. But then suddenly Poland has an election, and Slovakia which has election and Hungary, which has own policy, said, “No, no, we don't allow these particular grain exports from Ukraine because our farmers don't like it.” That runs totally contrary to the common trade policy that the European Union is running, runs totally contrary to the solidarity with Ukraine and support to Ukraine that we have all agreed on. So yeah, we'll see what happens. It’s a serious question.
What's the issue of using Catalan language in the European Parliament and the European Union as well?
Well, this is part of the efforts here in Spain to set up the new government. I mean, the socialists who have a very, very difficult position on negotiating with the Catalan separatists and the Catalan separatists, among other demands, are demanding that both Catalan and the Galician and Basque language should be official languages in the European Union. This brings up a huge number of issues, apart from making the European Union even more of a Tower of Babel than it is at the moment. The cost of translating every single speech, every single document, every single thing into the three languages brings immense costs, immense complexity. So expect the other European governments to say, “Hmm, we've listened to the demand. Let's ask the lawyers. Let's have a working group and let's do nothing.”