Several dozen transport company owners blocked three major Polish border crossings with Ukraine on Monday in protest against what they said was unfair competition from the neighboring country’s companies.
Trucks lined up at the border checkpoint in Dorohusk and almost all freight traffic was blocked by protesters who blamed the liberalization of EU rules for a collapse in their revenues.
“We want the rules of fair competition to be restored,” Rafal Mekler, one of the co-organizers of the protest, told AFP in Dorohusk.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU abandoned a system of permits for Ukrainian transport companies to enter Ukraine.
According to Polish companies, this move triggered an influx of Ukrainian competitors into the sector, causing their profits to plummet.
“Their costs for maintaining a truck, hiring a driver or simply opening a business or paying social security are much lower,” Marek Oklinski, owner of a transport company, told AFP in Dorohusk.
“They are lowering prices and taking away the freight we used to carry,” Oklinski added.
The demonstrators carried out similar blockades at the border crossings in Hrebenne and Korczowa, promising to allow passage of people and transport carrying humanitarian or military aid.
Poland’s infrastructure ministry said Warsaw could not meet protesting companies’ demands by reintroducing the licensing system for Ukrainian airlines, citing EU rules.
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“The agreement was reached by the EU… therefore Poland cannot practically reintroduce the permit system with Ukraine until the above agreement expires,” the ministry said in a statement sent to AFP, calling on protesters to end the blockades finish .