Polish farmers suspend border blockade with Ukraine: Agreement signed
Polish farmers suspend border blockade with Ukraine (photo: Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Polish protesters who have been blocking the Medyka-Shehyni border crossing with Ukraine are suspending their action. This is the result of today's agreements between them and the Polish Minister of Agriculture Czeslaw Siekierski, according to Polsat News.
Negotiations between the government official and the farmers lasted 17 hours. After that, the governor of Podkarpackie, Teresa Kubas-Hul, announced at a press conference on Saturday that an agreement had been signed between the parties.
"After the signing of the agreement, the protest at the Medyka checkpoint is suspended for the period necessary to implement legal and notification changes and for the time necessary to implement additional changes," the agreement says.
In his turn, the Polish Minister of Agriculture said that the agreement "is neither the beginning nor the end of the dialogue we have started and will continue with farmers."
Siekierski promised to meet all the farmers' demands. They include the launch of corn subsidies of 1 million zlotys, an increase in lending for liquid loans by 2.5 billion zlotys, and maintaining the level of agricultural tax at the level of 2023.
"We accept the requirements of farmers for implementation, they are included in our budget proposals for 2024 regarding corn subsidies and loans. Of course, the budget is in the process of adoption. I am convinced that all of this will be adopted by the Parliament, so I can be optimistic about the implementation of these two points," he said.
Blockade of the Polish-Ukrainian border
On November 6, Polish carriers went on strike at the border with Ukraine. The action was planned to continue until early January 2024. During the protest, a number of directions were blocked, allowing no more than one truck per hour to leave and enter. Later, the Medyka-Shehyni checkpoint was also blocked.
On December 22, 2023, Ukrainian and Polish officials agreed on an action plan to unblock the border crossing points. Polish representatives, for their part, planned to unblock the border by the end of 2023.
As a reminder, on December 4, a checkpoint for empty trucks leaving Ukraine was opened on the Ukrainian-Polish border. Also, on December 24, Polish protesters stopped blocking the Medyka-Shehyni checkpoint for the holidays.
However, on January 4, the blockade of this checkpoint was resumed. Earlier today, Polish media reported that Donald Tusk's government would sign an agreement with farmers to end the border blockade.
