The agreement meets farmers' demands for financial compensation, but does not contain restrictions on Ukrainian imports.
Polish farmers ended their blockade of the Polish-Ukrainian border after reaching an agreement with Warsaw that met their demands, defusing a dispute that was the first test of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's new government.
The newly appointed Minister of Agriculture of Poland, Czeslaw Siekerski, signed an agreement with Polish farmers to block the Medica-Shegyni border crossing with Ukraine on Saturday evening. The protest, which began more than a month ago, was called off on December 24 after an agreement with the government, but resumed on Wednesday amid farmers' distrust of the deal.
Farmers accused the new Polish government of failing to protect them from Ukrainian grain imports, but also demanded a series of financial support measures. Saturday's deal finally put in place those financial requirements, including starting subsidies for corn production, keeping farm taxes at 2023 levels and increasing soft loans for liquidity, but did not include restrictions on imports from Ukraine.
These measures "will be implemented after the completion of the legislative process and approval by the European Commission," the Polish Ministry of Agriculture reported
Despite the lifting of the blockade, the protesting farmers said that now the "most important" demand is to "restrict the flow of goods from Ukraine." EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski told Polish media on Friday that he will demand EU restrictions on such goods as sugar, eggs and poultry from Ukraine.
"These imports are increasing in a way that threatens the competitiveness of the EU sector, including Polish poultry and sugar production," he said. The Polish commissioner has already clashed with other members of the European Commission over the full liberalization of trade with Ukraine, which the EU executive is expected to recommend as early as next week.
"Ukraine is such a country that they just want to take, take, take and give nothing back," told POLITICO by phone Thursday, warning of the risks of the country joining the EU without restrictions.
Meanwhile, Polish truckers continue to protest as they want the government to end an EU-Ukraine deal that liberalized road transport rules in an effort to help Ukraine's economy, crippled by the Russian invasion.
Both groups' narratives are based on doomsday scenarios about the impact on Poland that Ukraine will one day become a member of the EU. At a summit in December, EU leaders agreed to start accession negotiations with Ukraine.
