Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday that Poland will maintain the ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products after September 15, even if the European Commission decides otherwise, the EFE agency reports, citing Agerpres.

• Read also: Romania and countries neighboring Ukraine will ask to extend the ban on the import of Ukrainian grain again

“We will not open borders for products from Ukraine on September 15. We will only allow their transit. I want to say clearly: we will not open this border. Either the European Commission establishes rules that extend this ban, or we will do it ourselves anyway (…) We will be tough, we will be decisive, we will protect the Polish farmer,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a press conference conferences. in Warsaw.

To help Ukraine after Russia’s war against the country last February, the EU suspended tariffs and other trade protection measures on Ukrainian imports, including grain and other food products.

During this time, large volumes of Ukrainian grain that would have transited to Eastern European states only through the “solidarity corridors” (created to help Ukraine export grain after it could no longer use its Black Sea seaports) remained in these countries, where they were sold below the prices that local producers can offer, and this is due to the fact that Ukrainian grain was not imposed by Brussels regarding compliance with European quality standards.

All this deformed the markets of Eastern European countries and caused losses to the farmers of these countries, which were only partially compensated by compensations approved by the European Commission.

Therefore, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria temporarily banned the import of some Ukrainian agri-food products, especially grain, after which the European Commission reached an agreement at the end of April with these four countries, as well as Romania, to guarantee the transit of Ukrainian grain in exchange for “exceptional protective measures”. , applied to four Ukrainian agricultural products, namely wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, the agreement expires on September 15.

The ministers of agriculture of these five countries (Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia) will appeal to the European Commission with a request to continue preventive measures on a wider list of products from Ukraine at least until the end of this year, the Romanian minister said. Minister of Agriculture Florine Bird.

He participated on Wednesday in Warsaw in the meeting of the ministers of agriculture of Poland, Bulgaria (online), Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, which was also attended by the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki.

“It is obvious to all of us that we are united in our continued support of Ukraine to resist the absurd war started by Russia. We are part of the European Union and are determined to continue helping Ukraine to transit products to markets. At the same time, we are determined to support our farmers in making good use of their production and the results of their labor to ensure food security for us all. Romanian farmers have suffered greatly from the war in Ukraine, as have farmers from countries close to the conflict. We will go to the European Commission with a joint position on the extension of preventive measures for a wider list of goods originating from Ukraine, at least until the end of this year,” said Florin Barbu.

At the end of the meeting in Warsaw, the officials signed a joint statement on the need to continue EU preventive measures regarding the import of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower originating from Ukraine. In addition, in this statement, the Ministers proposed to keep open the list of products subject to preventive measures to allow their use to effectively respond to similar problems in sectors other than cereals and oilseeds.