Talks between the ministers of agriculture of Poland and Ukraine have still not brought any breakthrough. However, it was not without tensions. Ukrainians did not like the behavior of the deputy minister of agriculture, Michał Kołodziejczak. What did he do?
A few days ago, a meeting between Czesław Siekierski and his Ukrainian counterpart, Mykola Solski, took place at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Deputy Minister Michał Kołodziejczak, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Economy Taras Kaczka, as well as representatives of Polish and Ukrainian agricultural organizations were also invited to the talks.
Zero specifics and a scandal
Little or nothing is known about the specifics, but there is information on the Internet about the strange behavior of Deputy Minister Kołodziejczak.
During the negotiations, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Michał Kołodziejczak, behaved strangely. Many times he jumped up and ran out of the room, then came back, sniffled and behaved quite nervously – representatives of the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) wrote on the X website.
Kołodziejczak: Ukraine is playing dirty tricks
Extremely strong accusations were leveled against the deputy minister. The comments under the UGA entry were full of suggestions that Kołodziejczak was under the influence of psychoactive substances. In a post summarizing the meeting, the Ukrainian side thanked all participants. The deputy minister was omitted from these acknowledgments.
Moreover, the post was illustrated with a photo that may be at least compromising for Kołodziejczak – a moment in which he is sitting leaning back in a chair with his eyes closed. Combining them with the entry about strange behavior and comments under the post, one conclusion comes to mind.
However, the deputy minister believes that posting such photos is an element of foul political play. According to him, the photo captured the moment when he was stretching his back after more than 4.5 hours of sitting on chairs.
I was stretching in my chair like many other people present at the meeting. The meeting lasted a long time, we all felt tired, we are only human, he emphasized. – It literally lasted 3 seconds. It’s also a lie that I kept leaving the room. It happened once, at the request of a ministry employee, to receive information from the Chancellery of the Prime Minister – he adds.
Kołodziejczak is outraged by the insinuations directed at him. In an interview with Onet, he commented on the posted photos as an attempt to discredit him and exclude him from further negotiations.
I realize that I am not comfortable in these conversations, it is difficult to negotiate with me, but please know that no attacks will discourage me, even the most unclean ones. I will say more: I feel appreciated! – he wrote on the website X. – We are on the right track in negotiations and we will do our job very well. We are making up for at least two years of PiS negligence in this matter.
It is certain that Deputy Minister Kołodziejczak stepped on the toes of our eastern neighbors almost at the very beginning of the talks.
The atmosphere of the talks was initially supposed to be good. However, a lot changed when Deputy Minister of Agriculture Michał Kołodziejczak allegedly told the head of the All-Ukrainian Agricultural Council, Andriy Dykun, that he did not want Ukrainians to use the topic of the war in talks – reports Wirtualna Polska.
This statement introduced great tension into further talks. Taras Kachka in particular reacted strongly to the words and, according to our informants, turned purple.
Kołodziejczak confirmed his words in an interview with Wirtualna Polska.
One of the representatives of Ukraine started to mix the topic of war, the front, and the difficult situation. I said that we know what the situation is, after all, we are still sending help, but it is not appropriate to bring up such threads in economic talks, because it is a difficult game. It was the first time they heard such hard words, after two years of barrenness, he said.
In his entry, the deputy minister emphasizes that not only the topic of the war aroused a lot of emotions on the Ukrainian side.
– Why is the Ukrainian side attacking me so much now? Because I recalled the words of Ukrainian Deputy Minister Taras Kachka, who said that if Poland helps to limit the import of grain from Russia to the European Union, Ukrainians will agree to limit the import of food products to the EU. And now they are withdrawing from it – writes Kołodziejczak. – The Ukrainians assured us that from April the transit of products subject to the embargo will be reduced to “0” and now they say that the transit will amount to 250,000 tons! I have provided a list of sprays and active substances prohibited in the EU and Poland, but still allowed in Ukraine – he adds.
The Ukrainians emphasized that no agreement on the most important issues had been reached due to the “specific” nature of the negotiations.
However, we are sure that Ukraine and Poland will be able to solve all problems, no matter how difficult they may seem, adds UAG.
Another scandal instead of solutions
No one needed to be convinced that talks with the Ukrainian side would be difficult. We still don’t hear about specific solutions, but once again we have a substitute topic that absorbs all the public attention.
There is no information available in the ministry’s official announcements, either about the course of the meeting or its effects. Once again, we get a scandal that obscures the problem. What did our ministry achieve during the negotiations? We will keep you updated on this matter.
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