Poland has achieved concessions from the EU on the issue of restricting the export of Ukrainian food; Brussels will control their influx if this could lead to lower prices in Poland or other neighboring countries, Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis said.
⠀
As the EC Vice-President noted, Brussels will be able to block imports if the market of a particular country is overcrowded.
⠀
“We will be looking at how to provide additional guarantees to Poland and other member states, and one way to do this is to introduce country-specific guarantees,” Dombrovskis said, adding that the proposals were due to be published “this week.”
⠀
At the beginning of November 2023, Polish carriers, later joined by farmers, blocked road checkpoints on the border with Ukraine. They demand the restoration of the previously canceled permit system for Ukrainian commercial carriers with exceptions for humanitarian aid and supplies for Ukrainian troops, the suspension of licenses for companies created in Ukraine after February 2022, their inspection, and the separation of queues of empty and loaded vehicles.
⠀
Polish-Ukrainian relations have become significantly more complicated due to the embargo on Ukrainian grain. On September 15, the European Commission decided not to extend restrictions on the import of four types of Ukrainian agricultural products into several EU border countries, but obliged Kyiv to introduce export control measures. After this, the authorities of Slovakia, Hungary and Poland announced that they were extending the ban unilaterally. In this regard, Ukraine filed a complaint with the WTO. In response, three EU countries announced that they would boycott meetings of the coordination platform on Ukrainian grain.
