Negotiations to unblock the border: Solsky tells what prevented the first step
Kyiv • UNN
Negotiations between Poland, the EU, and the relevant associations failed to take the first step toward unblocking the border due to disagreements among Polish associations, some of which opposed the proposed solution at the last minute, despite having initially reached a consensus.
Ukraine's Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky told what prevented the negotiations between Poland, the EU, and specialized associations from making a good first step to unblock the border, UNN reports .
We ourselves asked that they hold this meeting not only at the level of ministries, because we often communicated and it often came down to formalism. It was clear that they had a problem on the Polish side, that they could not convince the association, their farmers, for various reasons. They have a very diverse set of associations, they have regular elections, and politics is also involved. Their dialog with associations is much more complicated and much more formalized than in Ukraine, for example, in our ministry," Solsky said during the event "AgroDialogues: Challenges and Opportunities for Ukraine,
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That is, according to him, if someone in the association wants to talk about an issue, it takes two months of exchanges of letters and approvals.
That's why we convinced them to adopt this format for a month and a half. We asked them to bring from the Polish side not only those who love us, but also those who are the most "shouting". They brought some of the most "screaming" people... When the consensus was reached, the associations had to say together that we love and appreciate each other, that we decided to choose other ways, and they had to leave the border. And they were ready. When they saw the figures, they were ridiculous: 200 thousand tons of grain transit through Poland, which is about one day of Odesa's work. In fact, the associations agreed with this. There were some people who said no at the last moment," Solsky said.
That's why, according to him, a new round of emotions began.
Obviously, we have said that we will not step over some things. We are not going to make it so that companies that have signed contracts (lost them - ed.) cannot even legally do so. We said that we will not cancel these contracts, we do not have the ability to cancel them at all. In general, it's ridiculous that half of the 200 thousand tons per month goes to Gdansk, which is now half empty. We had a very specific conversation at the end. They had some arguments that this reduces the price for them in Germany and the Netherlands. We all understand that it cannot lower the price. The global trade market, like many other markets, is the vessels of one organism. That is why it did not allow us to make a good first step the Wednesday before last, so that they would leave the border and we would control other things once a month,
