After a group of Polish farmers blocked three Ukrainian grain lorries from crossing the border, spilling some of the grain on the road, Kyiv appealed to Warsaw to investigate the “shameful crime”, but Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski said he would not take action.
Just like their European counterparts, Polish farmers are protesting all over the country against the European Green Deal’s excessive food imports from third countries. In Poland, the main problem is the domestic market being flooded with Ukrainian food due to the EU having suspended trade barriers against Ukraine.
In one instance, some farmers protesting at the border crossing at Dorohusk on Sunday lost their temper and stopped three Ukrainian grain trucks from entering the country. They also forced the trucks to be opened and spilt small amounts of the grain directly on the road as a sign of protest.
In response, the Ukrainian Embassy in Poland asked the Polish police “to investigate this shameful crime,” announced Ambassador Vasyl Zvarych. The Polish police initiated proceedings, he said, as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda.
“Such methods of protesters should not be tolerated in a civilised European country, not to mention the moral aspect of this provocation,” Zvarych said.
He added that he expected those responsible to be found and held accountable.“The Polish authorities should react decisively on the legal level to this shameful and offensive crime for Ukrainians and most Poles and not allow such barbaric actions in the future,” he added.
Polish Agriculture Minister Czesław Siekierski admitted to TVP state broadcaster that the protesting farmers’ behaviour was “inappropriate, reprehensible and too emotional.”
Still, he indicated he would not act against the protesters.“Similar situations take place in the farmers’ protests in many European countries. It often happens that the farmers throw away food products,” he insisted.
Minister wants expanded import ban
The liberalisation of trade rules with Ukraine under the so-called solidarity corridors, recently extended by the Commission until 2025, has led to a large influx of several groups of products from Ukraine into Poland.
“Those products should have gone in transit to the non-EU countries. Instead, they stuck on the EU market, which is very attractive and high-paid,” Jacek Zarzecki of the Federation of Agricultural Producers Union told Euractiv Poland.
This led to a fall in prices and demand for Polish domestic production, which was replaced on the Polish market by Ukrainian food of lower quality, as Ukrainian farmers are not bound by the high production standards of the EU.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government supports the farmers’ protests and maintains the unilateral embargo on Ukrainian grain. It is also open to calls to extend the ban to other groups of products.
“If it was up to me, and that is what I proposed to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, I would impose limitations on the imports of sugar, frozen raspberries and apple juice,” Deputy Agriculture Minister Michał Kołodziejczak, also a former activist, said last week.
He said the government is discussing the issue with its Ukrainian counterparts, but Kyiv does not like his goal of reducing Ukrainian food imports to Poland.
“For now, I am the enemy number one in the talks with the Ukrainian side,” Kołodziejczak said.
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)
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Source: euractiv.com
