Polish farmers blocked two border crossings on the border with Germany on Monday, local police said.
EU farmers, including Poles, are demanding a change in the restrictions imposed on them by the EU’s Green Deal climate change plan, as well as the re-imposition of customs duties on agricultural imports from Ukraine, which were cancelled after the outbreak of military conflict in February 2022.
On Friday, the European Commission made concessions to farmers by proposing to relax a number of rules on leaving land fallow or rotating crops.
On Monday, farmers blocked the Swiecko and Gubinek border crossings on the border with Germany. A local police spokesman said the blockade began on Sunday and would last until Wednesday. Marcin Maludy, a spokesperson for the police in nearby Gorzow Wielkopolski, said:
Traffic in Swiecko and Gubinek is blocked, you cannot travel in either direction.
Maludy said the only option for lorries from the Lubusz region heading to Germany is to travel to Olszyn, while passenger cars can pass through the rest of the crossings in the region.
Polish farmers plan to hold mass protests across the country on Wednesday to force officials to act on their demands. They are particularly unhappy with increased competition from farmers in neighbouring non-EU Ukraine, who they accuse of flooding EU markets with cheap imports that prevent them from competing.
On March 15, Polish farmers blocked the Khyzhne checkpoint on the Polish-Slovak border. Protesters said that the checkpoint will be blocked until the end of March. Farmers will let through one truck per hour, and buses and cars are not affected by the protest.
