BRUSSELS, September 24. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s embargo on EU food imports, announced more than a month ago in response to Western sanctions over Moscow’s stance on the developments in neighboring Ukraine, might affect incomes of some 9.5 million of European farmers, the European Parliament said in its press release on Wednesday.

“The overall restrictions currently applied by Russia could jeopardize €5 billion [$6.4 billion] worth of trade and affect the incomes of 9.5 million EU farmers,” the press release said. “The value of banned fisheries products amounts to almost 144 million euros [$185 million].”

The press release also said that the International Trade Committee jointly with trade specialists from the EU Commission will debate the consequences of the Russian food embargo for the European Union on Wednesday night.

In response to Western sanctions, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on August 6 to ban for one year the imports of agricultural, raw and food products from the countries, which imposed sanctions against Russia.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced on August 7 that the Russian government imposed a one-year ban on imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheeses, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from Australia, Canada, the European Union, the United States and Norway.

The list of the banned products includes cattle meat (fresh, chilled and refrigerated), pork (fresh, chilled and refrigerated), poultry meat and all poultry edible by-products, salted meat, pickled meat, dried meat, smoked meat, fish and shell fish, clams and other water invertebrates, milk and dairy products, vegetables, edible roots and tuber crops, fruits and nuts, sausage and analogous meat products, meat by-products or blood, as well as products made of them, ready-to-eat products including cheeses and cottage-cheese based on vegetable fats.

Moscow repeatedly rejected the threats of broader sanctions saying the language of penalties is counterproductive and will strike back at Western countries.

The West started to impose sanctions on Russia in March 2014 over the events in Ukraine. First, an early EU summit stalled the talks on a visa-free regime and a new base agreement on Russia-EU cooperation. Further on the sanctions were grouped into three categories - personal, corporate and sectoral.

By the beginning of September some 420 Russian individuals and 143 companies had been put on the sanction lists of the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland and Norway.