Confederate press conference attended by Members Bronisław Foltyn and Krzysztof Szymański, on 19 March 2025.
Krzysztof Szymanski:
– Welcome to the Confederate press conference devoted to fresh steps from Ukraine towards Poland, which can be called a war on trade.
And possibly I'll start with this saying: there's a saying that feeding a crocodile only delays being eaten. This is simply a saying that's attributed to Churchill. It reflects global relations very well erstwhile the state cannot keep its own subjectivity and assertiveness. In Poland, it's a lot easier to say: don't feed a crocodile due to the fact that it'll eat you.
And I think that this shows very well that at this point we are confronted with a situation in which the Ukrainian side, which has been enjoying this for many years, let us call it explicitly, privileges, enjoys economical privileges – at a time erstwhile the European Union, erstwhile Poland is trying to reconstruct the erstwhile conditions of our cooperation, already giving up these excessive privileges for the Ukrainian side, then 1 of the politicians who evidently cares about Ukrainian interests, but does so in an absolutely arrogant and arduous way, threatening Poland, threatening economical matters, economical matters of our country. At that moment, it was the Deputy Minister of the economy of Ukraine, Taras Kaczka, already a well-known figure in the Polish public debate, who threatened to retaliate for Poland if the European Union does not extend these privileges.
And what are the privileges? First, in 2014, the common marketplace was opened to alleged duty-free quotas of Ukrainian goods under the Association Agreement. This has normalized our economical relations. On the another hand, after Russia's aggression against Ukraine, this common marketplace for Ukrainian goods has been completely opened. And, most importantly, it was opened unilaterally! We must not forget that this agreement, however, applies or grants these privileges unilaterally! This is worth highlighting due to the fact that there is neither symmetry nor reciprocity.
These peculiar conditions expire after 3 years. The deal's off, we agreed to it. Whether we like it at this point or not, or retrospectively, it was a good decision or not, the fact is that this deal is going to expire and the parties have agreed to it. The agreement expires in early June and now the Ukrainian side threatens. If you let this deal to expire, if you don't overstep it, then we will take economical retaliation! We will introduce specified measures to balance economical losses, as they call it. So if they can't make money the way they have done so far, then they're going to introduce solutions so that we lose as much symmetrically.
And let us remember that 1 of the most possibly symbolic and crucial examples of this agreement, the effects of this agreement, was the issue of method grain, due to the fact that the honourable Members, the European Union, agreed with Ukraine, but the Polish State pays this bill the most. It is the Polish country that loses the most economically. And let us remember just the cereals, the issues of method grain, which flooded Poland, flooded our market, almost leading to the collapse of Polish agriculture.
And here, as I started with a saying, it is possible to end with folk wisdom, due to the fact that in politics, especially this global one, there is simply a request for assertive attitude, a subject attitude is needed. And if a pig gets a finger, the pig bites the full hand off. And you should remember that.
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Entry “The feeding of a crocodile only delays being eaten” pochodzi z serwisu Confederation.
