Siekierski at Farmers' Protest: I Will Now Appeal for an End to This Blockade

09/02/2024

15:42

- Farmers are protesting because they are in a difficult situation, and we must understand them. Spring is approaching, they lack resources, they don't have money for fertilizers, for purchasing plant protection products, and they want to produce. This is also in the interest of all of us, including as consumers. Therefore, as the Minister of Agriculture, it is my duty to come here, listen, and talk. [...] Yesterday I spoke with the Minister of Finance, earlier I spoke with the European Commission, I spoke in Ukraine, we are conducting technical talks at a lower level, where we are establishing the rules for trade, because we want to monitor everything, so that we have information and knowledge about the volume of goods entering the Polish market - said Czesław Siekierski in an interview with journalists at the farmers' protest. - We are also discussing with the European Commission regarding the elimination of not always rational greening requirements, because farmers know how to produce, they know when to apply fertilizers. There is no need to control this from the EU level, because agriculture is different in Europe, and agriculture is different in Poland [...]. I want to talk about these matters first on Tuesday at the government meeting, and I also want to talk about these matters next week, probably Wednesday or Thursday, we will meet with representatives of the protesting farmers and we will formulate demands together - he continued. - I will now appeal for us to end this blockade, because transports must move, people are going to work, we know it makes life difficult. We asked the farmers for the protests to be as least inconvenient as possible, we also asked society to understand these demands, but there must be a certain degree of common sense here - he went on to say.