(Dorohusk) Several dozen Polish transport companies blocked three crossing points between Poland and Ukraine on Monday to protest against “unfair competition”, according to them, from companies in the neighboring country.
Almost all road traffic was blocked by trucks lined up by protesters who blame the European Union’s liberalization of border transport rules for their falling incomes.
“We want the rules of fair competition to be restored,” Rafal Mekler, co-organizer of the demonstration, told AFP in Dorohusk (East).
Wearing safety vests, a group of protesters led by Mekler left their trucks parked on the main road leading to the Dorohusk border crossing, blocking traffic.
PHOTO WOJTEK RADWANSKI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Transport company owners block access to the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing in Dorohusk, Poland, with their vehicles on November 6.
On a banner attached to their vehicle, the demonstrators list their demands, with in mind the restoration of entry permits for their Ukrainian competitors in order to reduce their numbers.
Because in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU abandoned the permit system which governed the entry of Ukrainian transport companies into the EU.
And according to Polish truck drivers, this decision has led to a significant increase in the number of Ukrainian competitors in the sector, hitting their business hard.
“Their costs of maintaining the truck, recruiting a driver or simply starting a business or insurance are much lower compared to Poland,” emphasizes Marek Oklinski, owner of a transport company.
Enough, according to him and his colleagues, to maintain competition with their Ukrainian counterparts that is difficult to overcome.
“They push the price down and take the goods that we transported before,” laments this boss who has 25 years of experience in transporting goods to Ukraine.
“Blocking the border harms the interests and economies of both countries,” Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Koubrakov responded on Twitter, saying he was “ready for a constructive dialogue” with Warsaw.
Question of survival
Beyond the restoration of entry permits, the other priority displayed by the demonstrations concerns the procedures for returning to Poland from Ukraine.
PHOTO WOJTEK RADWANSKI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A driver attaches a Polish flag to an exterior mirror during a blockade of access to the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing in Dorohusk on November 6.
“The Ukrainians created an electronic queuing system where truckers wanting to return to Poland have to register… The waiting time is about 11 or 12 days,” says Mekler.
Transporters also explain that the deterioration of their working conditions pushes some drivers to leave their jobs.
“They say they are not going to camp here for 12 days, without access to health infrastructure,” Pawel Ozygala, a transport company owner coordinating the blockade, told AFP in Dorohusk.
Protesters set up similar blockades at the border crossings in Hrebenne and Korczowa, still promising to let individual cars through, as well as humanitarian and military aid intended for Ukraine.
Poland’s Infrastructure Ministry said Warsaw could not meet the demonstrators’ demands under European rules.
“The agreement was signed by the EU…, from a practical point of view, Poland does not have the means to restore the permit system before the expiration of the agreement” in question, indicated the ministry in a press release addressed to AFP, calling on demonstrators to stop the blockades.
But for Ozygala and the other truckers in Dorohusk, their mobilization is a question of survival.
“We continue to fight, but if nothing changes by the end of the year, Ukraine will take control of the Polish transport market,” he criticizes.