Zelensky declares “historic” joint customs management on border with Poland

Joint customs management will probably be launched on Ukraine’s border with Poland in an effort to hurry up procedures and start integration with EU markets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky introduced on Sunday. Earlier his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda turned the primary overseas head of state to talk within the Ukrainian parliament because the outbreak of the conflict.

“We’re introducing joint customs controls with Poland,” mentioned Zelensky in a speech revealed on-line, quoted by the Rzeczpospolita each day.

“This may considerably pace up procedures on the border. It is going to additionally take away a lot of the corruption dangers. However it’s also the start of our integration into the frequent customs area of the European Union. It is a actually historic course of,” mentioned Zelensky.

The problem of ready occasions on the border was a degree of competition between the international locations previous to the Russian invasion, with Ukraine getting ready to sue the European Union over Poland’s refusal to extend the variety of freight permits.

Following the outbreak of conflict, nevertheless, Ukraine and Poland resolved to conclude a bilateral settlement on joint border and customs management as quickly as doable, mentioned Zelensky, as reported by the Ukrinform information company.

The joint customs process will cut back registration and queuing occasions considerably, mentioned Ukraine’s infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubakov. The minister additionally expressed hope that the profitable expertise of such cooperation could be prolonged to checkpoints with different EU neighbours.

“Our purpose is to totally liberalise truck transport with the EU,” mentioned Kubakov. “We now have already succeeded in partially liberalising freight transport, and I’m notably grateful to Poland for permitting lorries carrying gasoline to Ukraine to move by with out permits.”

Kubakov added that the international locations are working to ascertain a joint railway firm to extend the export potential of the Ukrainian financial system. Joint border and customs controls are already happening at 4 border crossing factors on the Ukrainian-Polish border, reviews Ukrinform.

Clearance time for lorries had been getting longer lately as a result of poor permeability of the border crossings, reviews Rzeczpospolita. Some drivers had been having to attend as much as a number of days to cross.

In 2021 commerce between the 2 international locations exceeded €48 billion, of which Polish exports accounted for €29 billion, in keeping with Statistics Poland (GUS), a state company.

Throughout Duda’s go to to Kyiv on Sunday, he and his Ukrainian counterpart additionally mentioned the problems of defence help for Ukraine and tightening sanctions in opposition to Russia, reviews Ukrinform.

Zelensky mentioned that relations between the nation are “lastly fully freed from quarrels and the legacy of outdated conflicts”, reviews Rzeczpospolita. “I would really like the brotherhood between Ukrainians and Poles to final endlessly…As I mentioned as we speak earlier than parliamentarians, our unity of Ukrainians and Poles is a continuing that nobody will break.”

Foremost picture credit score: Jakub Szymczuk/KPRP