Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Thursday that he would hold talks with his governing coalition leaders aimed at passing a parliamentary resolution on the need to embargo foods from Russia and Belarus.
Following talks with protesting farmers on Thursday, Donald Tusk said the European Union had been created in order to protect Europe’s unique agricultural market, including against competition from “these behemoths that produce food in an entirely different way.”
On the subject of agricultural imports from Russia and Belarus, Tusk said he did not want to make decisions that would impact large groups of Polish businesspeople, and so would proceed with “caution.”
“After a conversation today with the prime minister of Latvia, who described to me in detail the reasons why Latvians took the decision to impose an embargo of Belarusian and Russian produce, I will talk tomorrow with coalition leaders and the speaker of the Sejm (the lower house of parliament) and persuade them to adopt a Sejm resolution that unambiguously states the need to also introduce that type of decision,” Tusk said.
“In Russia and Belarus, the structure of agriculture, the production technology, is entirely different than in Europe, they have lower standards,” he said.
Tusk said it was an obvious illusion that anyone in Europe could compete with Russia or Belarus, but also with Ukraine in terms of foodstuffs.
“The European agricultural market, the common agricultural policy, agricultural producers in Europe, and especially in countries like Poland where we are dealing with family smallholdings, will not survive this confrontation with third countries,” Tusk said.
In recent weeks, Polish farmers have held protests against Ukrainian agricultural imports they say are undercutting their markets. The protests have involved blockades of the Polish-Ukrainian border and the destruction of some imported agri-products.
On the subject of agricultural imports from Russia and Belarus, Tusk said he did not want to make decisions that would impact large groups of Polish businesspeople, and so would proceed with “caution.”
“After a conversation today with the prime minister of Latvia, who described to me in detail the reasons why Latvians took the decision to impose an embargo of Belarusian and Russian produce, I will talk tomorrow with coalition leaders and the speaker of the Sejm (the lower house of parliament) and persuade them to adopt a Sejm resolution that unambiguously states the need to also introduce that type of decision,” Tusk said.
“In Russia and Belarus, the structure of agriculture, the production technology, is entirely different than in Europe, they have lower standards,” he said.
Tusk said it was an obvious illusion that anyone in Europe could compete with Russia or Belarus, but also with Ukraine in terms of foodstuffs.
“The European agricultural market, the common agricultural policy, agricultural producers in Europe, and especially in countries like Poland where we are dealing with family smallholdings, will not survive this confrontation with third countries,” Tusk said.
In recent weeks, Polish farmers have held protests against Ukrainian agricultural imports they say are undercutting their markets. The protests have involved blockades of the Polish-Ukrainian border and the destruction of some imported agri-products.
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