Polish Farmers defend Wojciechowski against Warsaw’s calls for resignation

Polish farmers have come to the defence of EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski after Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and the opposition made calls for his resignation.

As farmers’ protests against the European Green Deal and food imports from third countries drew thousands of tractors to the streets of many European cities, the Polish government and the main opposition party blamed Wojciechowski for the crisis.

“There is a man in Europe who united all European and Polish farmers against the reform he proposed. This is Janusz Wojciechowski. Resign!” said Kosiniak-Kamysz, the leader of the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL, EPP), who made his call before parliament on Friday.

Although Wojciechowski is the former leader of the PSL, it was the previous conservative Law and Justice (PiS, ECR) government, which lost power in Poland last December, that put him forward as a candidate for Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission in 2019.

But PiS strongman Jarosław Kaczyński too announced on Friday that he would talk to Wojciechowski and ask him to resign from the European Commission.

Wojciechowski denied media reports he was considering resigning, insisting that he had no intention of leaving his post and that he did not feel guilty about the protests by farmers across Europe.

“I see no reason for my resignation,” he told Polish media. “EU commissioners do not take instructions from the capitals of member countries,” he said, adding that while he respected Kaczyński’s views, he would not “act under pressure”.

Undermining his position in Poland would not help him fight for favourable solutions for Polish farmers, including in the future Common Agricultural Policy budget, he said.

“I don’t see negligence on my part. I wonder what I could have done differently in agricultural matters, and I’ll say frankly that I don’t see such an issue. To accept responsibility (for the farmers’ protests) would be to admit mistakes that I haven’t made. So I have to keep my cool,” the commissioner said.

He insisted that his pressure on the rest of the Commission made it possible to compromise on issues such as liberalised trade rules with Ukraine, the set-aside of land for biodiversity (GEAC 8 rules) and the pesticide reduction plan, which farmers had opposed.

Polish farmers defend Wojciechowski

Wojciechowski argued that no farmers’ organisation had called for his resignation and, in fact, Polish farmers tend to support his policies.

Kaczyński’s demand is “incomprehensible”, Jacek Zarzecki of the Union of Agricultural Producers told Euractiv.

He cited the upcoming European elections in June but also recalled that Wojciechowski stood alone in the Commission against the continuation of liberalised trade rules with Ukraine.

“Wojciechowski has long put a lot of effort to make other EU decision-makers aware of the dangers resulting from excessive food imports from Ukraine,”  Jerzy Wierzbicki of the Polish Union of Beef Cattle Breeders and Farmers told Euractiv.

According to him, Wojciechowski has also played an “important, positive role” in the negotiation of EU trade agreements with third countries and opposed the efforts of former Commission Vice-President for the European Green Deal Frans Timmermans to reduce meat consumption and production at the expense of the competitiveness of European agriculture.

“I think Wojciechowski actively supports the interests of Polish and European farmers,” Wierzbicki concluded.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)

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