Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland and Commissioner of the Polish Government for Refugees Pavel Shefernaker said that from July 1, the Polish government will no longer pay 40 zlotys a day (about 276 UAH as of June 1) for food and accommodation for Ukrainian refugees and counts on their employment and self-sufficiency, Rzeczpospolita reports.
“We are convinced that many people in Poland are able to become independent and adapt,” Schefernaker told TVP Info, noting that there will be exceptions – for some refugees, benefits will be expanded, these are “disabled, pregnant women or large families.”
The report notes that the Polish government, in a special act on assistance to refugees from Ukraine, initially guaranteed the benefit for the first 60 days, and a month ago extended it for another 60 days, but there will be no further.
“We pay out huge social funds – from PLN 300 for each to PLN 500+ for each child, and other amounts arising from social benefits. In addition, we see that many Ukrainians are looking for work, finding it and coping with everything. We want encourage others to be active. Four months of full protection is, in our opinion, a sufficient period,” a senior politician from the Law and Justice party, who was not named, said in a commentary to the publication.
“Rzeczpospolita” also notes that the government’s decision is dictated by very high costs for the maintenance of refugees. In particular, the Silesian Voivodeship estimated the current costs of 115 thousand refugees at PLN 190 million per month, of which daily payments of PLN 40 per person amount to PLN 160 million.
“We are just starting a wide range of measures aimed at activating Ukrainians in employment. Already 14,000 of them, including 11,000 women, have found legal work in our region. We are waiting for a special act that will help finance Polish language education and refresher courses qualifications, which, of course, will help you find yourself in the labor market,” said the press secretary of the Silesian voivode Alina Kukharzhevskaya.
Mayor of Muszyna, Malopolska Voivodeship, Jan Golba noted that out of 1,300 refugees who once settled in the city, 400 now live in it, of which only 60 people have found work so far. “We hired a doctor, a dentist, nurses and kitchen assistants. It’s a lot and a little. Whoever wants to work will find a job. And who doesn’t want to, nothing will force him. If the government does not pay 40 they probably won’t make it,” he told the publication.
The official exchange rate of the NBU on June 1: 6.82 UAH/PLN
Poland has decided to temporarily not carry out veterinary control of feed of plant origin (including forage grain cargoes) in transit through its territory to third countries, which will allow Ukraine to export agricultural crops through the Rava Ruska-Werhrata border crossing.
The corresponding simplified grain export regime began to operate on May 31, Valeriy Tkachev, deputy director of the commercial work department of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday evening.
“This means that such goods can be imported into Poland through any checkpoints – both railway and land. When imported, these goods will be subject only to customs border control. Thus, the transfer of wagons with grain cargo through the border crossing Rava Ruska – Verhrata is allowed . This will increase the export of grain from Ukraine!”, he wrote on the social network.
As reported, on May 17, Ukraine and Poland agreed on the possibility of transit of grain crops through joint border inspection posts, as well as on ensuring its rail transit through the border checkpoints Verkhrata – Rava Ruska, Medica – Shehyni and Krostsenko – Smolnitsa.
In addition to ensuring the possibility of transit of Ukrainian grain through Polish border checkpoints, the parties agreed to increase the number of Polish veterinary inspectors on the border with Ukraine to 19 people, as well as to change their work schedule to round-the-clock at the busiest border checkpoints.
Earlier, on May 11, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development of Poland agreed to improve logistics capabilities at the joint border.
Warsaw intends to propose Ukraine for entry into the International Energy Agency (IEA) at the organization’s next meeting in Paris, Polish Minister of Climate and Environment Anna Moskwa said in an interview with BiznesAlert.
“Poland wants to represent Ukraine to the International Energy Agency at the next meeting in Paris. To begin with, we would like to announce it as an observer. We already have the support of the head of the IEA,” she said.
She noted that Poland is currently negotiating the import of electricity from Ukraine.
The minister also said that the republic continues to supply oil products to Ukraine, but already on a commercial basis.
“At the beginning of the war and after the bombing of the refinery, we sent fuel free of charge. At present, these are commercial deliveries of Orlen, which require large logistics costs,” the minister said.
The IEA was created by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries in 1974 to help coordinate a collective response to severe oil supply disruptions.
The participating states are the United States, UK, Australia, Austria, Japan, South Korea, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Turkey. The associate members of the IEA are Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand.
President of Poland Andrzej Duda confirmed his country’s readiness to act as one of the security guarantors for Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was already interested in Poland’s potential agreement, Duda said in an interview with CNN.
“We believe that, as neighbors, we simply have to. Therefore, if Ukraine offers us to be the guarantor of security and the guarantor of peace when the war is over, and if such terms of the peace treaty are accepted, yes, Poland will participate in this,” he said.
Estonian company Nortal, which is engaged in strategic consulting and technology implementation, has bought the Skelia IT company along with its offices in Eastern Europe, Dragon Capital said in a press release.
“Skelia has established itself as an international leader in building dedicated technology teams in areas where customers want to remain in control of the development process while experiencing the stability of a premium team and quality of service. Their strong presence in western Ukraine and Poland will provide Nortal with an excellent platform for growth. Together, we can further expand our business across geographies and time zones while strengthening our offering and serving customers across the full spectrum of their needs,” Nortal CEO and Founder Priit Alamäe was quoted as saying.
As noted, the companies will focus on creating new synergies and value for customers, as well as creating additional opportunities for Skelia employees in Poland and Ukraine, which will now become part of Nortal.
“By joining forces, Nortal and Skelia will leverage each other’s complementary and individual strengths, as well as provide new career opportunities for our global combined team of more than 1,700 people. Nortal brings us a wealth of experience in building end-to-end solutions and products. This greatly complements Skelia’s longstanding business of building over 200 sustainable cross-border IT and engineering organizations for leading companies in Europe, the UK, the Nordics and the US,” Skelia CEO and co-founder Patrick Vandewalle was quoted as saying.
The amount of the agreement is not reported.
Skelia was founded in 2008 and currently employs over 350 people, primarily in Ukraine and Poland. Skelia serves clients in 10 countries and operates through a network of offices in the Benelux countries, Poland, Ukraine and the USA.
Nortal was founded in 2000. The company has more than 1.4 thousand employees and has 20 offices in Europe, the USA and the Middle East.
Dragon Capital acted as an advisor to Nortal on this deal. Oaklins Sweden acted as an advisor to Skelia.
From day to day Ukraine expects deliveries of gasoline from the state reserve of Poland, which were supposed to cover a quarter of consumption in May.
This was announced by First Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Denys Kudin during the talk show “Ukrainian Petroleum Products Market: Temporary Crisis or Large-Scale Collapse?” organized by the Energy Club on Monday.
According to him, unlike diesel fuel, the volumes of gasoline imports into the country currently do not cover the volumes of its consumption.
“And here we are counting on the help of our European partners, in particular, the Polish state reserve, which promised to give us approximately a quarter of the consumption in May. We are expecting this supply from day to day,” Kudin said.
At the same time, according to him, the volume of imports of diesel fuel to Ukraine is currently 20% higher than the volume of its consumption.
“This is enough for the buyer, after standing in line, to be able to fill his tank, albeit with restrictions, but 20 liters, but not enough to remove the queue,” the first deputy economy minister said.
In his opinion, the reason for the preservation of queues at gas stations for buyers of diesel fuel is its low stocks from operators – 3-5 days of sale instead of the previous 15-20 days. At the same time, individual operators do work “from the wheels.”
Nevertheless, as the First Deputy Minister emphasized, in the first half of May, at a meeting with European partners on providing Ukraine with fuel, decisions were made that give Kyiv the opportunity to look to the future with optimism.
“However, you need to understand: the war continues, the enemy is systematically destroying our infrastructure … The enemy is destroying the railway, so we all need to be patient and gradually rebuild our consumption,” Kudin said.
According to the Ministry of Economy, Russian aggressors have destroyed 27 oil depots in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
As reported, according to the updated forecast of the Ministry of Economy, consumption of 300,000 tonnes of diesel and 120,000 tonnes of gasoline is expected in May. The ministry noted that such a volume of imports has already been contracted by Ukrainian chains.
