Poland to uphold veto on EU-Russia talks: PM

Poland will uphold its veto of Russia-EU negotiations toward broader economic cooperation if Russia imposes sanctions against Poland in a meat export row, Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski warned on Tuesday.

Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, vetoed the launch of talks on a broader economic cooperation agreement between the EU and Russia in November last year in protest against a year-old Russian ban on imports of meat from Poland.

"Under the currently operative Russia-EU agreement, Russia cannot use such methods towards Poland. Poland will in no circumstance withdraw from its veto should Russia use them," Kaczynski told a press conference.

Kaczynski said any economic sanctions against Poland would mean sanctions against the EU.

Poland will never agree to be treated like a country that is not a EU member, he added.

The prime minister's words followed a report on Tuesday by Russia's Kommersant daily saying that Moscow will impose restrictions on imports of various goods from Poland in retaliation for Poland's blocking of EU-Russia negotiations on the new agreement.

The planned restrictions will reduce the value of Poland's exports to Russia by between 1.5 billion and 2 billion U.S. dollars from the present 4 billion, the daily said.

Russia, which has been vigilant of its food safety after findings of Poland's falsified veterinary and sanitary certificates, responded with rhetoric.

"We believe the ball is in Poland's court. No one other than Poland can solve this problem," Sergei Yastrzhembsky, President Vladimir Putin's special representative on EU relations, said on Tuesday in Moscow.

The national elites of some recent EU entrants had "major hang-ups" about their "special relations" in the past with Russia, he said.

"(They) try in part to exorcise these hang-ups through their relations with contemporary Russia. These new entrants have to a certain extent influenced the atmosphere of relations between Russia and the EU," said Yastrzhembsky.

Russia urged Poland to put aside historical grievances and resolve a dispute over meat imports which is hindering the start of negotiations on the EU-Russia deal.

The EU said earlier that the restrictions should be lifted immediately, but agreed that Russia does have a right to send a team of experts into Poland to see for themselves.

According to the PAP news agency, Russian veterinary inspectors on Monday visited Poland to inspect selected meat plants accompanied by EU vets.

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