A escalating spat between Poland and Belarus over an imprisoned journalist risks bankrupting Polish businesses, according to correspondence between the European Commission and a Euro MP.
The closure of two border checkpoints between the two countries – ordered by Warsaw in retaliation for the imprisonment of a Polish-Belarusian journalist earlier this year – has impacted businesses and residents who relied on cross-border trade, says Polish MEP Tomasz Frankowski.
Poland has demanded the release of Andrzej Poczobut, a dual national journalist whose reporting criticised the Belarussian regime. He was sentenced in February to eight years in a high security prison for “inciting hatred and calling for sanctions”.
“In response to those actions, Poland closed its checkpoints on the border with Belarus at Bobrowniki and Kuźnica,” Mr Frankowski told the Commission in a parliamentary question. “Unfortunately, due to the closure of these border crossings many residents and businesses in the Polish border region now face bankruptcy.”
According to a newly published reply by Brussels Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, there are currently no plans to compensate those caught in the crossfire. The Brussels executive approved a €21 million Polish scheme to compensate the tourism sector for damages suffered due to restrictions at the Polish-Belorussian border, the Commissioner wrote. However, that scheme “does not concern subsequent events such as the closure at the Bobrowniki and Kuznica checkpoints”.
Cross-border traffic between Poland, Belarus and Ukraine has been hindered by angry truckers, who earlier this month blocked some of the few crossings left open.
Polish truckers say Ukrainian and Belarusian drivers are offering transport services in Poland at prices they can’t match.
Poczobut has been repeatedly imprisoned in Belarus. His current detention dates back to March 2021. According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, he is the leader of the Union of Poles in Belarus, an organisation representing the ethnic Polish minority in the country, which according to the 2019 census numbered 300,000.
