Poland will ask the EU for the reinstatement of permits for Ukrainian transport companies entering the bloc, as demanded by Polish hauliers, Poland’s acting infrastructure minister has said.

Polish transport companies have been blocking the Hrebenne, Dorohusk and Korczowa checkpoints with Ukraine, demanding that the EU reintroduce commercial permits for Ukrainian companies carrying goods other than humanitarian aid and military equipment as well as suspend operating permits for Ukrainian haulage firms set up after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

They complain their business has been undercut by Ukrainian firms who pay much less to their truckers and thus have lower operating costs, but are competing with Polish firms.

On Monday, Alvin Gajadhur, the acting Polish infrastructure minister, met with protesting Polish drivers in Hrebenne.

After the meeting, he told a press conference that Poland has requested that the agenda of the Monday sitting of the EU’s Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (TTE) in Brussels include a discussion on how the bloc’s transport sector has been affected by the 2022 EU-Ukraine road transport liberalisation agreement.

Under the deal, Ukrainian carriers do not need to obtain special permits for entry, transit, and transportation of goods to EU member states.

But Polish truckers complain that instead of carrying goods between Ukraine and the EU, as specified in the agreement, their Ukrainian peers also transport goods within the bloc.

Waldemar Jaszczur, chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Transport Carriers and Employers, a Polish truckers’ organisation, told reporters that following the liberalisation of the entry rules for Ukrainian hauliers, „half of Polish (transport - PAP) companies stopped operating… because Ukrainian carriers came here, took our work, lowered the prices and we were unable to compete with them.”

„Poland will demand the reinstatement of permits and bringing back the situation that was before, so that Ukrainian carriers do not unfairly take over the market from Polish carriers,” Gajadhur declared.
mk, PAP