The situation on the Polish-Ukrainian border began to get out of control. Ukrainian carriers have announced a hunger strike, and there are fewer steps to the worst option – riots. Therefore, the two countries’ relevant ministries still managed to resort to some constructive actions, although not those that society had hoped for.
The strike of Polish carriers continues for the fourth week, and the average price of one truck downtime per day is 350 dollars. Ukraine has suffered enormous losses during all this time.
The main thing is to start
It will not be possible to settle the case in one day, but the first step has been taken. For this, they involved:
– from the Ukrainian side – the Ministry of Reconstruction (represented by Serhii Derkach);
– from the Polish side – the Ministry of Infrastructure (represented by Rafal Weber).
They met in Warsaw to work out measures to unblock the border.
After the discussion, several “emergency” mechanisms were proposed:
– to allow the passage of empty trucks at the “Uhryniv-Dolhobyczow” checkpoint to reduce the load on other checkpoints;
– to create passes for empty trucks at the checkpoints “Yahodyn-Dorohusk” and “Krakovets-Korczowa” in the system eCherha.
These checkpoints were chosen because the necessary traffic lanes are physically present here, both from the Ukrainian and the Polish sides.
They also agreed on a pilot project for registration in eCherha, where you can register immediately before crossing the border at the “Nyzhankovychi-Malhowice” point. Such registration will be valid for a month.
Not the right time
The representative of the Ukrainian presidium reported that the most significant issue of changes or cancellation of the EU “transport visa-free regime” for Ukraine was not considered during the negotiations; the purpose of the meeting was different.
A day before the start of negotiations, 2100 trucks remained in the queue at the Ukrainian-Polish border.
