April 5, 2007

Poland: EU-Russia veto stays as long as meat ban

Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Wednesday his country would lift its veto on strategic talks between the European Union and Russia if Moscow ended a ban on Polish meat imports.

Responding to questions at a news conference, Kaczynski said: "If the Russians lift the ban, and if the mandate (for talks) includes energy issues in a way that is satisfying for us, we will lift the veto."

Poland blocked the EU negotiating mandate on the start of talks on a wide-ranging strategic partnership with Russia last November to demand an end to a Russian embargo on imports of Polish meat and other agricultural products.

European Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger told a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday that Poland had indicated it would be ready to lift the veto on talks between Brussels and Moscow.

Polish officials maintained that Warsaw's position had not changed. Poland had always been flexible and willing to compromise in order to find an agreement to let talks between the European Union and Russia begin.

The bottom-line, said Warsaw, was that it needed the Russian ban on Polish food products to be lifted, or at least to receive a clear indication that the ban would be lifted and when that would happen.

However, Russia's state animal and plant health watchdog said on Wednesday its ban on meat imports from Poland could not be the subject of a political trade-off with Warsaw.

A spokesman for the Rosselkhoznadzor watchdog pointed out to concerns regarding "food safety and the health of consumers", quoted Reuters.