Polish deputy agriculture minister disrupted talks with Ukraine – Polish associations

Ukrainians have criticised Michał Kołodziejczak, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Poland, for his "strange" behaviour during negotiations with Poland. Kołodziejczak himself denies all the accusations, although Polish organisations have also confirmed Ukraine’s statements.

Source: Polish media outlet Onet

Details: Representatives of the Ukrainian organisations that participated in the negotiations say that Kołodziejczak behaved inappropriately, repeatedly leaving the room, wrinkling his nose, and making a point of taking his headphones off during a speech by the Ukrainian minister, and was nervous while making his own speech.

Kołodziejczak denies most of the accusations but admits that a confrontation did occur during the meeting. He told Onet that the Ukrainians did not like the fact that "he was well-prepared for the talks".

Representatives of the Polish organisations that participated in the talks have confirmed what the Ukrainians said. One of the Polish attendees stated that during the two and a half hours of the meeting, Kołodziejczak kept coming and going from the negotiation room, checking his phone, and busying himself with anything but the conversation.

"When the negotiations were coming to an end and [Polish Agriculture] Minister [Czesław] Siekierski had left the room for a while, Michał suddenly ‘attacked’ the representatives of the Ukrainian delegation who, I must admit, were very well-prepared for this meeting. They showed us presentations on how much grain was under contract and argued that they could not now terminate contracts that were signed a year ago. They wanted the Polish side to permit the transit of these several hundreds of thousands of tonnes," a participant in the talks revealed.

It was the Ukrainians’ request for permission for the grain to be transited through Poland that triggered the Polish deputy agriculture minister.

The Polish representatives said they had talked to him after the meeting about his behaviour. He was reprimanded, and they hope it will not happen again.

Background:

• Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi commented on the results of a trilateral meeting which was held in Warsaw earlier between Ukraine, Poland and the European Union with representatives of specialist associations.
• Krzysztof Paszyk, leader of the parliamentary group of the agrarian Polish Peasants' Party (PSL), reported that Warsaw and Kyiv were close to reaching an agreement on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine.
• The Ukrainian government has implemented a verification procedure for four crops: maize, rapeseed, sunflower and wheat. From now on, export licences for these crops will be issued after coordination with the Poles.

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