Polish media reveal how Polish PM persuaded Macron to change import terms against Ukraine's favour

The EU compromise on changes to the trade agreement with Ukraine, which does not satisfy Kyiv, has become possible because, among other things, Prime Minister Donald Tusk managed to win over French President Emmanuel Macron to Poland's side. Source: Polish radio station RMF FM revealed the details in its article, as reported by European Pravda Details: The article noted that the European Parliament's plenary session passed an amendment by Polish MEP Andrzej Halicki on 13 March, which referred to the inclusion of the 2021 import threshold in the estimates, which was deemed disadvantageous for Ukraine due to the low volume of Ukrainian agricultural products during that period.

In addition, Halicki's amendment proposed to expand the list of products subject to restrictions to include cereals and honey.

Subsequently, Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski convinced Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk that the latter could play a key role in Poland's efforts to achieve greater restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural imports. Tusk was supposedly sceptical at first, but after often heated negotiations with Siekierski, Tusk personally stepped in. The radio station's sources in Brussels noted that the conversation between Tusk and French President Emmanuel Macron during the Weimar Triangle meeting on 15 March was decisive.

"At the time, Macron knew little about the agreement with Ukraine and had no idea about the importance of 2021 as a base year, which significantly reduces the level of Ukrainian imports," said the Warsaw source.  "However, he (Macron) quickly realised that France could also gain something by supporting Poland in this game," he added. Following the night talks on 19-20 March, MEPs expanded the list of Ukrainian goods subject to restrictions to include new agricultural products: oats, corn, cereals and honey.

However, they failed to include 2021 in the agreement and add wheat to the list. It was the first time that Poland and France spoke out jointly, which led to a lack of support for the compromise previously reached with the European Parliament.   On Friday, 22 March, at the EU summit in Brussels, Macron and Tusk presented to EU leaders the need to amend the agreement with Ukraine.

Negotiations took place not only officially during the session but also on the sidelines. At the time, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy addressed the EU leaders, arguing that those who wanted to reduce agricultural imports from Ukraine were undermining Kyiv's defence capabilities. After the summit, on Friday, at a press conference, Macron spoke in great detail about the demands of Poland and France, i.e., about 2021 and the inclusion of wheat on the list.

On Monday, 25 March, the Belgian presidency tried to push through a tentative agreement without the additional 2021 provisions, but it failed again. All of Ukraine's neighbouring countries supported Poland and France, joined by Italy, Croatia and Slovenia. This strong coalition forced the Belgians to be more flexible.

Consequently, they themselves presented a compromise proposal, which the European Commission called a possible final solution before the summit.

The idea is to include half of 2021 in the trade agreement with Ukraine, which still significantly reduces Ukrainian imports.

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