Border blockade: Polish government turns to Ukraine with a proposal

The Ministry of Infrastructure of Poland has stated that it had turned to Ukraine with a proposal which may lift the blockade of the Polish-Ukrainian border by the Polish hauliers.

Source: statement of the Polish Ministry cited by European Pravda

Details: Andrzej Adamczyk, Minister of Infrastructure of Poland, turned to Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, with a request to cancel the mandatory registration in the eCherha (e-Queue) system for vehicles returning from Ukraine to the EU that were unloaded at the border crossings of Zosyn-Uściług and Nyzhankovychi-Malkhovitse.

eCherha is a free service available in an open mode for carriers registered in the Shliakh system. The latter allows male drivers or volunteers to legally cross the border under martial law.

"It has significantly increased the waiting time for the vehicles registered in the EU which return from Ukraine without cargo in order to cross the Ukrainian-Polish border," Adamczyk explained, adding that, according to the hauliers, this system "allows unequal treatment of Ukrainian and Polish transporters".

He also turned to Adina-Ioana Vălean, European Commissioner for Transport, with a request to create a joint committee for analysis of the agreement on the liberalisation of transportation with Ukraine (visa-free transportation) influences the road transport market in the EU.

The cancellation of this agreement is the main demand of Polish hauliers.

Background: The Polish hauliers, who have been blocking three checkpoints on the Polish-Ukrainian border for road freight since 6 November and only let a few cars pass every hour, commenced a blockade of another checkpoint, Medyka-Shehyni, on 23 November. The blockade might last until 3 January.

They are demanding, among other things, that commercial permits be introduced for Ukrainian goods transportation companies, with the exception of humanitarian aid and supplies for the Ukrainian military, that licences for companies founded after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine be suspended, and that inspections be conducted.

Polish farmers who joined the blockade of hauliers on the border with Ukraine in the Prykarpattya region on 23 November are planning to continue their protest 24 hours a day until 3 January. The blockade will last 24/7 starting 27 November.

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