Polish agriculture minister, Czesław Siekierski, has said that at the Monday meeting of his EU counterparts in Brussels, he will demand limitations to the European Green Deal contended by farmers across Europe. Meanwhile, protests are spreading, as Polish farmers, who have previously protested on the border with Ukraine, lined up tractors to block one of the key crossings into Germany.
Polish farmers have been protesting around the country as they complain that the excessive rules and bureaucratic procedures imposed by EU’s green farming policies harm Polish agriculture and their livelihoods.
Czesław Siekierski, agriculture minister, declared on Sunday that while in Brussels he will “strongly request, expect and demand a limitation of the Green Deal” including the solutions related to the use of pesticides and the fallowing of fields.
These solutions are not accepted by farmers, they believe that they “violate their professional dignity,” he said.
The European Green Deal is a package of policy initiatives aimed at putting the EU on the path to ecological transformation and ultimately achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
The package includes initiatives in closely related areas, climate, environment, energy, transport, industry, agriculture, and sustainable financing.
Polish farmers block highway to Germany
Polish farmers added their tractors to growing EU protests on Sunday, blocking one of the key crossings into Germany.
Some 100 tractors lined up on the Polish side of the A20 north of Świecko, blocking the border and forcing German-bound traffic through Słubice and over the bridge into Frankfurt an der Oder.
Farmers across Europe have been stepping up protests this year, including in Poland, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, complaining of low prices and high costs, cheap imports, and constraints from the EU’s Green Deal climate change initiative.
Central Europe’s farmers are angry over what they call unfair competition from abroad, particularly Ukraine, after an EU decision in 2022 to waive duties on Ukrainian food imports.
The Polish farmers said their protest would likely finish on Monday but said that as long as things remained unchanged the protests would continue.
“We are protesting against what the European Union and the European Parliament are proposing to us concerning the Green Deal. We want to show our presence and solidarity with all the protesters in Poland, all the protesters in Germany, in France, in Spain, that we are in fact one as farmers. And in fact we all expect, one could say, almost the same from those in power in the European Parliament,” said Dariusz Wróbel, one of the Polish farmers participating in the Sunday protest.
Czesław Siekierski, agriculture minister, declared on Sunday that while in Brussels he will “strongly request, expect and demand a limitation of the Green Deal” including the solutions related to the use of pesticides and the fallowing of fields.
These solutions are not accepted by farmers, they believe that they “violate their professional dignity,” he said.
The European Green Deal is a package of policy initiatives aimed at putting the EU on the path to ecological transformation and ultimately achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
The package includes initiatives in closely related areas, climate, environment, energy, transport, industry, agriculture, and sustainable financing.
Polish farmers block highway to Germany
Polish farmers added their tractors to growing EU protests on Sunday, blocking one of the key crossings into Germany.
Some 100 tractors lined up on the Polish side of the A20 north of Świecko, blocking the border and forcing German-bound traffic through Słubice and over the bridge into Frankfurt an der Oder.
Farmers across Europe have been stepping up protests this year, including in Poland, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, complaining of low prices and high costs, cheap imports, and constraints from the EU’s Green Deal climate change initiative.
Central Europe’s farmers are angry over what they call unfair competition from abroad, particularly Ukraine, after an EU decision in 2022 to waive duties on Ukrainian food imports.
The Polish farmers said their protest would likely finish on Monday but said that as long as things remained unchanged the protests would continue.
“We are protesting against what the European Union and the European Parliament are proposing to us concerning the Green Deal. We want to show our presence and solidarity with all the protesters in Poland, all the protesters in Germany, in France, in Spain, that we are in fact one as farmers. And in fact we all expect, one could say, almost the same from those in power in the European Parliament,” said Dariusz Wróbel, one of the Polish farmers participating in the Sunday protest.
Source: PAP, Reuters, TVP World
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