European Parliament member comments on border situation with Poland: “I believe russian interference is likely”

The situation at the Poland border violates European trade laws governing commerce within the EU and with external nations. There are significant concerns that the border protests may not solely be about agricultural products, but rather indicate potential russian involvement behind these actions.

Bernd Lange, Chair of the European Parliament’s Conference of Committee Chairs and the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee, made these remarks during a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform.

“Personally, I have doubts that all the protests coming from farmers are really linked to the import from Ukraine. There are a lot of reasons behind it, there’s also even russian interference in the actions of the farmers. So we have to be careful to have this one way link with Ukraine goods coming into Europe. Secondly, we are now going on with tariffs on russian agricultural products, so that the situation in the agricultural market will be more relaxed and will also lead to a better situation regarding the border. I hope that this has to be resolved soon,” he said.

As per the MEP, efforts are underway to find the necessary solutions to address the situation.

“Of course, this situation is illegal. We have clear European performance regarding trade policy relations to third countries. And the former Polish government got a clear message from the European Union. And now, we have the situation that there’s protests from the agricultural sector from some farmers trying to block the border, and we are trying to give some possibilities to reduce this competition which they fear. Like some license models, some direct support for farmers so that the situation can be calmed down,” he added.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news