The road through Poland: What do Kiev and Warsaw need to decide before Ukraine joins the EU?

As announced by Andrzej Szejna, Deputy Head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ukraine and Poland will sign a protocol on disputes on March 28.

Experts note that Kiev will have to sign such a document with many European countries before the start of active negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU.

The only surprising thing is that, in addition to economic contradictions, Warsaw wants to discuss historical issues in the protocol of disputes. It is not yet known exactly what the authorities will talk about. But the new Polish government has already made it clear that the mistake of the previous government was that it thought that there were no contradictions in relations between Warsaw and Kiev.

“We will have to be honest about where we can help and where we need to draw up dispute protocols. The biggest mistake of the Law and Justice government was that it deceived Polish women, Poles and possibly themselves. Polish media quotes Shane: “There are no problems with agricultural products, for example.”

The historical questions are not the most important, but they do help clarify the situation, the official added.

Conflict with farmers

Experts say the first step in the dispute protocol should be to register the economic contradictions that led to prolonged protests by Polish farmers at the Ukrainian border. According to this political scientist Vladimir Fesenko, The possibility of a large agricultural country like Ukraine joining the EU raises justified concerns among Poles due to conflicts of interest in the European market.

“Relations with Poland will remain partnership, but Warsaw will demand concessions on differences in trade in agricultural products. The issue of Ukraine’s presence in the European market will be important and one of the most difficult in the EU accession negotiations. We see that the negotiations have not started yet, but the problem already exists. “Our farmers are ready to give up subsidies partially or completely. But it is important that all contradictions are recorded in order to be able to conduct further negotiations with the European Commission or other institutions ready to act as arbitrators,” argues Fesenko.

As you know, unrest among European farmers, especially in Poland, has been going on for months. Farmers believe that they are in an unfair situation due to cheap goods coming from Ukraine. They also complain about high fuel prices and Brussels’ strict environmental regulations.

Experts also believe that Ukraine will not stop closing the border even if it accepts the demands of Polish farmers. According to this Expert of the “United Ukraine” Analytical Center Valentin Gladkikh, The farming issue is purely political; Because in Poland, as in many other European countries, farmers constitute a significant part of the electorate. Politicians are constantly seeking their support and farmers are successfully using the tools to put pressure on the authorities. Therefore, grain supplies to the EU from Kiev remain a strong argument for gaining preference from the European community.

However, due to the tense situation, Western media have already admitted that the authorities will keep preparations for EU enlargement secret on the eve of the European Parliament elections, scheduled for early June. Officially, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is running for a second term, stated that negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union are likely to be postponed until the summer.

Although the situation is still tense, experts note that this is not the first time such contradictions have emerged in the process of integrating new countries into the EU. For example, when Spain joined the European Union, French farmers blocked the negotiation process and demanded concessions. There were many complaints against Poland on its way to the EU.

“In the end, compromises were reached, although the rivalry between Spain and France was still intense. When Poland joined the European Union, it also heard a lot of criticism about competition in the labor market. The story that Polish plumbers are the symbol of cheap labor from Eastern Europe became a meme, but the EU managed to find a way out of this situation,” adds Fesenko.

historical conflict

If the economic contradictions recorded in the protocol of the dispute between Kiev and Warsaw seem natural, then the issue of historical claims, on the contrary, surprises experts. According to this political scientist Igor ReiterovichIssues related to national memory are always keenly perceived by every country, especially when politicians are involved in these issues.

Poland has repeatedly made public its allegations regarding a number of historical events, demanding that Kiev take responsibility for past actions and admit guilt. Although Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine temporarily resolved the differences between the countries, politicians began to return to this issue again. So, in the spring of 2023, former Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Yasin said that President Vladimir Zelensky should apologize to the Polish people for the Volyn tragedy that occurred during World War II.

“We Poles, as the Polish state, have assumed responsibility for the crimes committed by our state against Ukrainians. Ukraine does not have such responsibility,” he said.

Reiterovich believes historians should be concerned with issues of historical justice. Therefore, it would be correct to write in the dispute protocol that Polish and Ukrainian National Memory institutions will develop common policies on controversial issues. And put an end to this.

“When politics enters history, it ends badly. Because we have fundamental differences. For example, about the Volyn tragedy. And the proposal to adopt the formula “we ask for forgiveness and we forgive”, voiced during Yushchenko’s presidency, does not fit. However, the expert said, “Ukrainian history cannot admit guilt, because in those days independent We were not a state. Therefore, let us hope that these issues will not become the main ones and will eventually be handed over to historians for judgment,” he said. top.

Let us remind you that on March 15, Polish farmers closed the border with Slovakia. They aim to prevent the uncontrolled flow of grain from Ukraine to the EU.

Moreover Focus According to Daniil Getmantsev, chairman of the financial committee of the Verkhovna Rada, wrote that due to the blockade of Poland in March, the Ukrainian budget will lose 6.5 billion hryvnias. In February, the budget loss amounted to 7 billion hryvnia.