Poland sets deadline for EC negotiations on Russian vegetable ban

Minister Sawicki said the legal basis for this would be the fact that Poland assumes the EU presidency the following day.

Russia has, so far, only allowed imports of vegetables from Belgium and Holland despite the fact that Polish exporters have the same certificates of approval which guarantee a special system of screening the offered produce for E-coli presence.

At present EU commissioners for health and agriculture are engaged in the negotiations with Moscow.

According to earlier agreements, Belgian, Dutch and Polish producers were to receive permission for exporting their goods to Russia already last week.

Next in line were to be vegetable growers from the Czech Republic and Spain. All five countries have implemented the same method of checking for E-coli.

That makes the Russian decision to keep in force the ban on Polish imports all the more surprising and without justification, the European Commission’s spokesman Frederic Vincent told Polish Radio. (ss)