Poland negotiates exemption from Green Deal provisions

The Polish government is negotiating with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for the country to be exempted from some provisions of the European Green Deal, a minister has confirmed to the media.

The argument behind the potential exemption is that Poland is a large agricultural market close to Ukraine. Since mid-2022, when the Commission suspended trade barriers with Kyiv as part of so-called solidarity corridors, Polish farmers have struggled with lower demand and prices for their production caused by the enhanced influx of Ukrainian agri-food products.

The exemption would cover “everything possible, both under the Green Deal and the influx of (imported) products that would cause permanent disruption to the market of one or more countries”, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna (New Left, S&D) told private radio ZET on Sunday.

“If we succeed in negotiating Poland’s demands (…), it will be the common position of the EU,” he said, adding that should the negotiations with the Commission last too long, Poland would consider measures like border blockages and unilateral duties.

Polish farmers are continuing their protests against the European Green Deal and the liberalisation of trade with Ukraine, which has caused them huge losses. Their border blockade was met with outrage from Ukrainian officials, who urged their Polish counterparts to take steps to maintain cross-border movement.

This week, Prime Minister Donald Tusk suggested that his government was negotiating to close the border and temporarily halt trade between Poland and Ukraine, which Kyiv later denied.

Tusk’s cabinet later said such a move was not yet being considered.

Consultations between the Polish and Ukrainian governments are scheduled for 28 March. Szejna expressed confidence that the problem of Ukrainian food flooding the Polish market would be solved by then.

Asked about President Andrzej Duda’s involvement in the negotiations between Poland and the Commission, the minister said the government had sole responsibility for the talks. “It is the government that possesses the tools (to negotiate), not the president,” he stressed.

The agricultural summit called by Tusk last Thursday left most of the farmers present dissatisfied with the government’s position on the agricultural sector’s demands. The farmers say they will not stop protesting.

“Politicians, who have been politicians all their lives, are too slow and too diplomatic in expressing their assessments of the situation,” Andrzej Danielak of the Polish Union of Poultry Breeders and Producers told Euractiv Poland.

“They probably do not feel the pain experienced by farmers who produce at low prices and simultaneously have to repay their loans,” he added.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)