OREANDA-NEWS The European Commission (EC) announced on Tuesday that it had accepted the proposal to allocate 600 million euros from the reserves of the European Development Fund to promote food security in African, Caribbean and Pacific states.

"To help our partners, we are mobilizing an additional 600 million euros to avoid a food crisis and an economic shock", said EC President Ursula von der Leyen.

She linked the threat of a food crisis to the Russian military operation in Ukraine, noting that "Russia is still blocking millions of tons of badly needed grain", despite the fact that the Russian president has repeatedly reminded that Russia has never interfered with the export of Ukrainian grain.

Von der Leyen also noted that the allocated assistance comes in addition to the EU package of 3 billion euros for global food security. According to von der Leyen, countries need to "join forces to deal with the global food crisis".

The communiqué of the European Commission explains that 150 million euros of the planned tranche are intended for humanitarian assistance, 350 million euros - for the countries' own production and strengthening the resilience of food systems, and 100 million euros are allocated as macroeconomic support.