Poles are afraid of Ukraine's accession to the EU and are doing everything to make its carriers less competitive, - expert

Polish carriers are worried about the period when Ukraine will join the European Union and will be able to carry out international transportation without restrictions. Therefore, they are already doing everything they can to make their carriers less competitive. Currently, Ukrainian carriers are not competitors for Polish ones in the EU market, and any such statements are nonsense and manipulation. At least because Ukraine has ten times fewer licenses for such activities.

Volodymyr Balin, vice president of the Association of International Road Carriers (AsMAP), told OBOZ.UA. He explained:

• Ukraine can carry out transportation between EU countries and between countries with the EU to third countries only if it has an ECMT license;
• "We have 5,500 such licenses," and on their basis, Ukraine can carry out no more than 100,000 such transportations per year;
• "Poland has 320 thousand vehicles" that can be used for transportation.

"What kind of competition are we talking about? I am categorically against the idea that Ukrainian carriers are competitors to Polish carriers in the European Union market, this is absolute nonsense," Balin said.

He also emphasized that the statements of the Poles that Ukraine is allegedly destroying their transportation market are manipulations. However, he admitted that local carriers are worried about the period when Ukraine will join the European Union:

• will join the European Union;
• will be able to carry out such transportation without restrictions.

"Therefore, they are already doing everything to make Ukrainian international carriers less competitive in the future," the expert stated.

The EU is on Ukraine's side

At the same time, Balin emphasized that the EU itself supports the extension of the transportation agreement with Ukraine. That is, they are on the side of our country.

Moreover, they are "critical" of the Poles' comments on this agreement. "The Ministry of Infrastructure has stated that what Poland has proposed is not yet acceptable even to the European Union," he said.

There is a way out of the situation

Balin sees two ways out of the current situation. These are:

• either the Polish authorities restore order at the border and ban the blockade;
• "or we will go other ways, through other countries, even by other means of transportation."

Who is behind the border blockade?

At the same time, Balin emphasized that the Confederation Party is behind everything that is happening. He called it "openly pro-Russian" and "openly anti-Ukrainian."

"They have stated that they are against Ukraine's accession to the European Union. By the way, they are against Poland's participation in the European Union and believe that we should leave," he summarized.

Poles are expanding the border blockade

Meanwhile, Polish carriers have announced that they will resume their strike on the border of Ukraine on March 1. Drivers and representatives of logistics companies will join the blockade already organized by Polish farmers.

The carriers' protest action was suspended on January 17. Back then, they said they would wait for the Polish government and the European Commission to fulfill their demands by March 1.

However, according to Maciej Wronski, president of the Polish Transport and Logistics Association, the negotiations between the carriers and the authorities have not progressed. "There was an announcement from the Ministry of Infrastructure that a draft law would be presented that would strengthen control over Ukrainian carriers. Several weeks have passed and we have no draft," Wronski said.

According to him, some carriers are still protesting, but unofficially. "We see these people at farmers' protests. For me, this is also absolutely not serious, we have to give the government a chance to implement the points of the agreement concluded in January. I am against intensifying the protests, I am against blocking roads, I am for solving the problems of specific communities," Wronski added.

However, according to the Polish media, signals from farmers and carriers indicate that if the situation does not change by Thursday, February 29, the scale and number of protests on the border with Ukraine will only increase. The journalists also reminded us that not only Ukraine but also Poland suffers from the border blockade.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, meanwhile, one of the organizers of the Polish protests on the border of Ukraine turned out to be the owner of a transport company that manages to make money on the blockade. We are talking about Edyta Ozigala, a member of the Polish border blockade committee, head of the protest at the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint, and a politician.

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