Polish government signs deal with farmers
The Polish farmers have signed an agreement with government representatives, whereby they have agreed to temporarily halt their border blockade at the Shehyni-Medyka crossing, the Polish Agriculture Ministry announced on January 6.
Uczestnicy protestu na przejściu granicznym w MedycePAP/Darek Delmanowicz
During a meeting with Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski on Saturday, January 6, farmers from the „Betrayed countryside” organization signed a deal with the Polish Government.
Siekierski pledged to meet three of the farmers farmers’ demands, according to the government announcement. These include launching corn subsidies worth one billion zloty ($251 million), increasing liquidity loans by 2.5 billion zloty ($629 million), and keeping agricultural tax at the 2023 level, thekyivindependent.com reported.
“These measures will be implemented after the legislative process is completed and acceptance by the European Commission is obtained,” the Agriculture Ministry said in its statement.
The Polish daily Rzeczpospolita earlier reported that farmers have also requested that the ban on Ukrainian agricultural products be expanded to include items such as sugar, eggs, and poultry. However, this demand was not included in the deal, the officials informed.
Since November, Polish truckers have been blocking three crossings with Ukraine in protest of the EU’s liberalization of transit rules for Ukrainian truckers, kyivindependent.com writes. Polish farmers also launched a blockade at a fourth crossing near Medyka, first between November 23 and December 24 and then again between January 4 and February 3. After reaching the newly signed agreement with the Polish government they halted their blockage on the border.
Truckers, however, continue their protest, entering its third month already.
(aj)
SOURCE: IAR, kyivindependent.com, Rzeczpospolita
