Yesterday, two weeks apart, Prime Minister Tusk’s second meeting with farmers took place and, as Tadeusz Obszański, the chairman of NSZZ RI “Solidarność”, stated after the meeting: there were no details, there was one big void.
The Prime Minister stated that he would not close the border with Ukraine and that Poland’s surplus grain would be ‘collected’ from the market using domestic resources, although officials have only now yet to determine how much of this surplus grain is in Poland. (Previously, Tusk claimed at a meeting with farmers that there are 9 million tons of it). The Prime Minister also announced changes to the ‘Green Deal’ regarding agriculture, but these changes were won by Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski and presented last week at the Council of the European Union by the agriculture ministers of 27 Member States, without any support from Donald. Tusk, but on the contrary, with its połayanki.
READ ALSO: Strict lockdowns of provincial cities on March 20. Obszański: We left the meeting with the Prime Minister with nothing, the border will be open
On March 20, blockades of provincial and district towns
In this situation, as announced by the chairman of Agricultural Solidarity, farmers will again block all provincial towns, border crossings and many roads in our country on March 20. The fact that the government has no vision for solving the problems reported by the protesting farmers was evident from the rejection in the Sejm of a resolution drawn up by the parties involved themselves, which was submitted in unchanged form by the Law and Justice Club. First of all, Marshal Hołownia did not allow the first reading to take place in the plenary hall, which representatives of protesting farmers could have listened to, and during the work on it in the Committee on Agriculture, representatives of the ruling majority made changes that caused distorted its main message. The government does not want to agree to block the import of goods from Ukraine, such as sugar, eggs, poultry, honey, frozen raspberries (currently the embargo imposed by the Government of Law and Justice on April 15, 2023 on wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds are in force), which the protesting farmers are demanding. The government also cannot directly oppose the ‘Green Deal’ because the European People’s Party, of which both the Platform and the PSL are members, has taken it as its banner and wants to promote it during the European Parliament election campaign that has already begun . This is why Donald Tusk did not meet with the farmers protesting in Warsaw last Wednesday, because he went to Bucharest for the EPP meeting, which, among other things, supported Ursula von der Leyen as head of the European Commission in the next legislature. office of the European Parliament.
READ ALSO: The closer we get to the hundred days of Tusk’s rule, the more often the promised details disappear like camphor
Tusk will try to take credit for the changes to the Common Agricultural Policy prepared by Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski and well received by the Agriculture Ministers of 27 Member States at the last meeting of the European Union. There is a good chance that they will be pushed through at the next meeting of the European Commission. This is about moving away from mandatory set-aside of 4% of the land. It should be a voluntary solution for which ARiMR will pay farmers extra (the so-called additional eco scheme), moving away from mandatory crop rotation and replacing it with crops. diversification, allowing Member States to flexibly choose the period of winter land cover application, exemption from inspection of compliance with CAP conditions for farms up to 10 ha (i.e. about 75% of farms in Poland), exemption from fines for non-compliance, meet the CAP conditions by 2024, and ensure that no new obligations are imposed on farmers due to climate, environmental or other reasons until the end of the current financial perspective, i.e. until 2027 policy.
Tusk’s coalition against the embargo
Since the extension of the duty-free trade deal with Ukraine until 2025 was supported by EPP and left-wing MEPs in the European Parliament’s Trade Committee, it appears that imports of sugar or poultry will not be blocked, but perhaps the government in Poland will also repeal the embargo on wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower introduced by the PiS government. In turn, it will only be possible in the EU to push through what Commissioner Wojciechowski has prepared, even if he has no support from the new government. There is no chance of anything else, because the work of the European Parliament ends in April. and he will not start working on the new composition until September. In this situation, the Tusk team has only clubs and gasoline available to the protesting farmers, which the police so eagerly used last Wednesday, after provocations prepared, as everything indicates, by “unknown perpetrators”.
READ ALSO:
– ONLY HERE. Robert Telus: I am convinced that the Polish farmer Donald Tusk will not give up so quickly, because he is stubborn
– ONLY HERE. “After 40 minutes. When I listened to Tusk I felt bad. The farmer could not nervously tolerate the meeting and was taken away by ambulance
Source: wPolityce