OREANDA-NEWS. The EU economy has fully adapted to the Russian embargo, farmers have been able to find alternative markets, said EU Head of Diplomacy Federica Mogherini. At the same time, there are other assessments of the damage caused by Russian counter-sanctions to the European Union - it is estimated at billions of dollars. At the same time, Russia itself suffered from Western sanctions.

The economies of the EU countries have fully adapted to the Russian counter-sanctions, said the head of EU diplomacy, Federica Mogherini. The European Commission concluded that EU sanctions against Russia and counter-sanctions from Russia had a restrained influence on the European economy. “The Commission regularly assesses the economic impact of EU measures and retaliatory sanctions imposed by Russia in the agri-food sector. The impact of restrictive measures in relation to Russia on the EU economy as a whole remains restrained and controlled”, says Mogherini’s response to a request from MEP Nadine Morano.

Since 2013, that is, before the introduction of the embargo by Russia, the total exports of EU agri-food products to third countries showed a significant increase of 14.6%, reaching an outstanding level of 137.4 billion euros in 2018”, the response indicated. Regarding Russia, Mogherini noted that EU sanctions were not the only reason for the weakening of the country's economy. “It is difficult to quantify the isolated effects of EU restrictive measures on the Russian economy, since they coincided with the emergence of broader economic obstacles, including existing structural obstacles to growth, oil price fluctuations and ruble depreciation”, she said.

For four years, the share of Russian producers in the markets of fruit, vegetable, cheese, dairy and meat products has increased significantly. According to estimates of the publication, in 2013, Russia imported 35% of food, and now - no more than 20%.