Polish farmers from Solidarity announced Friday that the trade union is planning a blockade of the country’s border crossings with Ukraine from Friday, 9 February, joining similar protests in Germany, France, Greece, Belgium, Ireland and Portugal.
Farmers say they oppose rising costs, EU climate change measures, and “unfair competition from abroad”, particularly cheap food imports from Ukraine.
“Our patience has run out,” Solidarity said in a statement Thursday, adding that the EU’s position is “unacceptable” to Poland’s farming community. The passivity of the Polish authorities “leaves us with no other choice but to declare a general strike”, the union said.
Solidarity also said it is planning intermittent road blockages nationwide from 9 February to 10 March.
EU faces angry farmers in Brussels
The European Commission (EC) said it was paying close attention to the concerns of farmers in several member states and is “assessing possible next steps”, an EC spokesperson told news agency Reuters.
A different farmers’ group earlier blocked a border crossing with Ukraine, but pulled the protest on 6 January after the new government agreed to its demands.
Farmers threw eggs at the European Parliament and lit fires in Brussels on Thursday, demanding that EU leaders do more to support the agricultural industry.
A total of three US soldiers were found dead while a fourth remains missing after…
The US and Russia are discussing the potential reopening of the Nord Stream 2 gas…
Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik announced that he had arrived in Moscow on Monday…
Startups in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are growing faster than in Western Europe and…
Romania and Poland have gender pay disparities among the lowest in the EU, according to…
European leaders met in Brussels on 20 March to confront a mounting policy dilemma: how…