No deal reached between Polish PM and protesting farmers

The meeting between Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and protesting farmers ended Thursday without an agreement, reported Xinhua, quoting local media.

Tusk and Minister of Agriculture Czeslaw Siekierski met with leaders of the protesters here Thursday afternoon, said the TVN24 news channel.

Tusk said after the meeting that all participants wanted to protect Polish agriculture, the Polish market and the European market from the consequences of the ill-advised decision to fully liberalize trade with Ukraine. "We believed that we were on the same side," he said.

"We want to help Ukraine and we will help Ukraine," said Tusk, adding that "this support cannot be at the expense of the Polish farmers."

Tusk also said that the Polish side, both the protesters and the government, would prepare precise demands regarding changes to the European Green Deal. He warned that Poland was not going to respect the European Green Deal if some of its provisions were not changed.

Despite describing the meeting as constructive, Krzysztof Chmiel, a farmer representative, said that they learned nothing specific and no decisions were made at the meeting.

With no agreement reached with the government, the next protest would be highly likely carried out as planned on March 6 in Warsaw, he added.

On Tuesday, Polish farmers staged a demonstration in Warsaw, demanding the removal of some provisions of the European Green Deal, which they say hampers agricultural production in the bloc, and the closure of the borders to restrict the influx of agri-food products from non-EU countries, mainly Ukraine.