Poland's prime minister on Monday, Dec. 4, urged the European Union to reinstate entry permits for Ukrainian trucks, weeks into a protest by Polish hauliers over what they call unfair competition from the war-torn country.
Poland's hauliers have been blocking Ukrainian trucks at border crossing points for the past month over the EU's decision to waiver the entry system following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.
The waiver was meant to expire in June but was extended for another year.
"We are very firmly and unequivocally calling for the reinstatement of the transport permit system for Ukrainian trucks," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters.
"This system was in place until spring 2022 and it worked well. It was then modified by the European Commission and today, the hauliers are blocking the border," he said.
The blockade has led to endless queues at the border and constitutes a major economic problem for Ukraine, which relies heavily on routes through Poland for its exports and imports.
The protesters say their revenues have dropped because of the permit waiver, which Brussels and Kyiv have said should stay in place.
Following several rounds of talks, the two countries and protesting lorry drivers reached an agreement over the weekend in a first step towards a de-escalation of the border blockage.
The Dolhobyczow-Ugryniv crossing, which previously served only cars and buses, was opened Monday for empty trucks travelling from Ukraine to Poland.
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Comments (3)
Oho.I see it has already started 'backstabbing' and 'we are on war and we have only rights' narrative.
But mayby instead of blaming everyone around, someone should ask first:Why it took Ukraine 1 month to finally agree on opening additional checkpoint in order to deescalate situation.It could have been done ages ago without any problem and shown Ukraine's willingness to cooperate.
Or, regarding to discrimination and unfair competition:Why it is impossible to finally sort out Ukrainian electronic system to prevent this:
"Polish trucks wait in an electronic queue in Ukraine to cross back into Poland, in a system that is designed to give priority to Ukrainian companies.-Our trucks have to wait 12 days to leave Ukraine.To legally enter a car in the electronic queue I have to drive it into Ukraine first, can't do it ahead of time.Polish hauliers go to Lviv, or at most to Kiev.This takes 2 days and then they have to stand for 10 days waiting to be let out.A Ukrainian company, on the other hand, can book a place in Polish system's queue a few days in advance before it starts transport and before it even enters Poland.Once registered, they can even change the registration numbers of the cars in the system, while our companies do not have this possibility" 6 Nov 2023
Perheps it would be way faster to reached compromise, if Ukraine finally starts focusing on friendly way of solving real problems rather than just keep repeating:war, backstabbing etc, over and over again.
Their revenues are down because of competition from Ukraine ,O boo hoo. Ukraine is being destroyed because of these snakes and their lies about support for EU and NATO membership. The blood of dead Ukrainian children are on the hands of the Poles as much as it is on Russian hands.
"unfair competition?" No such thing as fair OR unfair competition...IF there were, there would not be competition. What the Polish want is protectionism.
Poland MUST be forced to compensate the Western EU member truck drivers when Polish truck drivers did the same in 2017...except Poland in 2017 and now did not and does not have a compelling reason...my nation Ukraine is in the middle of a war, our survival as a people and nation depend on this so an exception must be made.
Poland and Slovakia truck drivers and their governments should be ashamed of themselves by elevating the desire for a bigger paycheck instead of helping a nation and people survive.
It would be interesting if someone would investigate how many of these "Polish" and "Slovak" trucking companies are genuine and not belarusian and russian truck companies, some of whom have moved their operations to Poland and Slovakia impersonating Polish and Slovak owned trucking companies so as to use EU laws against the EU membership and Ukraine. Air, sea, and now road access by Ukraine is denied...next is rail.
And most importantly...IF...IF...this was truly about Polish and Slovak truck drivers making money...then how is it that Polish and Slovak truck drivers are making money while their trucks are sitting idle blocking the borders with Ukraine?
They are being paid by the gremlin in the kremlin.
@Joseph Swanson, Poland has always backstabbed Ukraine. They used Ukraine in the most cynical and horrible way by making Ukraine believe in their lies of EU and NATO membership. They engineered this conflict ,they knew very well that the physcho Putin would lose his mind and attack Ukraine like a wild beast when Ukraine signs the EU association agreement so they baited Ukraine with lies and deciet saying association is the first step to membership and that NATO also will embrace Ukraine immediately. Now hundreds of thousands are dead, all of the south east is being destroyed and these people are mourning about some lost revenue due to Ukrainian competition.
@roshan, Ukraine signed the Association Agreement with the EU on 21 March 2014.
Now it is obvious that Poland should not side with Ukraine, but adopt an impartial attitude, as Orban did in Hungary. For Polish help and devotion to the Ukrainian cause, Ukrainians will now accuse Poland of the outbreak of war in 2022 and their own defeat in 2023.
As a consequence of this unfortunate war, they will also demand the right to destroy the Polish economy and deprive Poles of their livelihood, because they were attacked by Putin, who allegedly lost his mind, when Poles deliberately engineered the Russian-Ukrainian conflict (an unnecessary quarrel between two brothers).
As expected, relations between Ukraine and Poland are exactly where they have been for centuries. Unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the same.