Paris - Kyiv, January 27 (PolitNavigator, Vasily Ablyazimov) - Poland was offended by France for the unilateral lifting of sanctions on the supply of pork and pork products to Russia. Reuters reports that Poles criticize France for violating the “principle of European solidarity.”
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On Monday, France agreed with Russia to lift sanctions on the supply of pork and pork products. At the same time, France has joined the sanitary requirements of Russia, which state that French factories will not use pork with the threat of infection with the African swine fever virus, and this is mainly meat from Poland and the Baltic countries.
Reuters writes: “As pressure mounts in the European Union to adopt tougher sanctions against Russia after clashes intensified in Ukraine... France is negotiating to lift a ban on the import of live pigs, offal and fat into Russia, which was imposed by Moscow a year ago. This ban will be lifted in the coming weeks."
At the same time, while actually agreeing to supply its products to Russia, France supports the embargo against the Baltic countries and Poland, as it undertakes to refuse to process pork from these countries. In view of the fact that Russia has not lifted the ban on pork supplies from Poland and the Baltic states, this Russian ban will be partly supported by France.
Polish Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki, in a letter to the EU seen by Reuters, said he was "deeply disappointed" by news of France's bilateral agreements with Russia.
The diplomat, who asked not to be named, told the agency that the Lithuanian prime minister also wrote a letter of disagreement with the bilateral deals to responsible European officials.
“This allows Russia to use the principle of divide and conquer,” the diplomat said in an interview with the agency.
Russia represents a market of at least 100 million euros ($112 million) for French pig farmers. Due to the ban on supplies to Russia of products from Europe and the glut in the EU food industry itself, European farmers are experiencing serious difficulties, and this contract will help avoid bankruptcy of many French livestock farms.