Polish farmers’ planned blockade of a road on the Lithuanian-Polish border could violate the EU principle of free movement of goods and people, Economy and Innovation Minister Aušrinė Armonaitė said on Thursday.
“Heavy vehicles will be diverted to some additional parking lot where they will be checked, and there will be queues,” Armonaitė told the Žiniu Radijas radio.
“The flow of individuals will not be stopped, as far as I understand, but we are still members of a free European Union where the movement of goods and people must be free,” she added. “Any obstruction of that movement appears potentially to violate free movement.”
Polish farmers are planning to block the road at the former Budzisko-Kalvarija border checkpoint for a week from Friday, citing fears that some of the Ukrainian grain imported into Lithuania is returning to Poland.
According to Armonaitė, the role and presence of Lithuania’s ambassador to Poland at the border would be particularly important in this situation. The position of Lithuania’s ambassador to Poland has been vacant since early September as the president and the Foreign Ministry cannot agree on a suitable candidate.
“The ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania should be in Suwalki at this moment, rather than being caught in the squabbles between the president’s office and the Foreign Ministry,” Armonaitė said. “Perhaps we could call it a diplomatic defeat, but Lithuania doesn’t have its highest-rank diplomat in Poland, which is a problem.”
The Suwalki Gap is a land strip of around 100 kilometres on the Lithuanian-Polish border that is wedged between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the west and Belarus on the east.
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