Mateusz Morawiecki made the announcement in a televised address to the nation on Tuesday night, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The prime minister said that “the Council of Ministers made an important decision concerning our country’s food security today.”
He stated: “After September 15, Poland will maintain the ban on the import of Ukrainian grain. This embargo will remain in place. We won’t allow the Ukrainian grain to destabilise the Polish countryside.”
Morawiecki stressed that “the interests of Polish farmers, of the Polish countryside, but also of the millions of Polish consumers will always be a priority” for his conservative government.
The prime minister said that “Poles did more for Ukraine than anyone else in Europe” in terms of humanitarian, military and political assistance amid the Russian invasion.
He added, however, that the government had to protect Polish farmers against the influx of cheaper grain from Ukraine.
Morawiecki noted that the European Union’s executive Commission in May introduced a ban on the import of wheat, corn, rapeseed, sunflower and sunflower oil from Ukraine to Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, based on an agreement with these five countries.
He added: “This EU ban expires on September 15. For the past two months, our government, together with the Polish EU commissioner for agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski, has been taking all measures to secure an extension of the embargo. The European bureaucracy has still not made a decision.”
The prime minister stated: “We are one of Europe’s biggest grain producers. We won’t let the Polish farming industry, one of the leading sectors of the Polish economy, to be destroyed by anyone, to be destroyed by the negligence of Brussels bureaucrats.”
Morawiecki said Poland was allowing “export and transit” of Ukrainian grain “to Africa and Asia,” but would not allow “the destabilisation of the Polish market.”
The prime minister vowed: “We’ll protect Polish grain producers no matter what the European Commission will decide.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Morawiecki said he had sent a letter to the European Union’s executive Commission, demanding an extension of the embargo on Ukrainian grain beyond September 15.
The embargo was initially effective until June 5, and later extended until this Friday, September 15.
Meanwhile, the transit of Ukrainian grain through the five countries “near the frontline” remains allowed.
In July, Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that his country would not open its borders to Ukrainian grain when the European Union ban expires on September 15.
Agriculture Minister Robert Telus said at the time that Ukraine's five EU neighbours wanted the embargo prolonged at least until the end of the year, the PAP news agency reported.
Tuesday is day 566 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
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Source: PAP, Polsat News