In the Belgian capital, a short distance from the headquarters of the European Parliament and the European Commission, where the leaders of the bloc of 27 countries meet, hundreds of farmers with tractors protest this Thursday, February 1, against high production costs and regulations from the EU to the sector, which they consider “suffocating”. Demonstrations and blockades against the same measures continue in France.
With horns blaring and engines roaring, hundreds of farmers with their tractors protest and block the streets a few steps from the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels.
Some of the protesters threw stones at security forces preventing them from getting closer to the area that also houses the headquarters of the European Commission and the European Council, as the leaders of the 27 countries participate in the EU summit.
Others threw eggs that hit the windows of the European Parliament building, while smoke rose through the streets of other parts of the center of Brussels, as a result of the fire that was set on the barricades.
Although the meeting was called with Ukraine as the central issue – a country for which in the last hours Brussels announced that it is unlocking an additional 50 billion euros in aid– The anger of farm workers on the continent has been such in recent weeks that their plight managed to be included on the discussion agenda this Thursday, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo confirmed.
“We also need to ensure they can get the right price for the high-quality products they offer. We must also ensure that the administrative burden they have remains reasonable,” said De Croo, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.
The fuse of the protests that began at the end of 2023 in countries such as Germany and Poland, continued in France more than two weeks ago, where farmers continue to block important roads in the country and this week the anger also moved to the streets of several locations in Belgium, including Brussels.
The reasons for anger are common among farmers in countries that belong to the European Union.
“Stop these crazy laws”: farmers from Spain and Italy join the protest in Brussels
Farm workers protest the increase in energy costs, the rise in prices of inputs such as fertilizers, the increase in imports into the bloc of foods that are cheaper than those grown in the EU –which they call unfair competition, since they do not comply with the same regulations-– and the increasingly strict rules of the 27-nation bloc for the sector, amid environmental measures, but which protesters describe as bureaucratic and “suffocating.”
Among them, calls rules of land set asidewhich force farmers to maintain a certain amount of non-productive land.
The protesters assure that the high costs they must assume, added to inflation and climate change, that withered, flooded or burned their crops, make it very difficult for them to subsist with dignity from their work in the field, which is why they demand immediate changes.
Standing near the EU headquarters, farmer Jean-François Ricker, braved the winter temperatures in the early hours, while waiting, he said, between 1,000 and 1,400 vehicles to join the mobilization in the Belgian capital. “There will be a lot of people. We are going to show that we do not agree and that it is enough, but our goal is not to demolish everything,” he noted.
Some farmers from Spain and Italy also arrived there this Thursday, February 1, to support the requests of their colleagues in the face of problems that they claim affect everyone.
“We want clauses (not legible), that is extremely necessary. Secondly, we want to stop these crazy laws that come every day from the European Commission. It is a kind of tsunami and the third is that we demand respect for the Spanish and the agrarians of the European Community,” said Spanish farmer José María Castilla.
“We decided to come here to join other young European farmers to create a single voice, not against, but with cooperation before the European Parliament and other types of politicians, because we want to safeguard our tradition, our farmers, our food quality, but To safeguard most of these types of things you need dignity, a decent income,” added Italian farmer Enrico Parisi.
France and Portugal announce measures for farmers
Some political leaders are beginning to respond to the voices of protest. In France, where blockades continue on important roads in the country, including roads leading to Paris, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced some measures for the sector in the last few hours.
The premier announced 150 million euros in fiscal and social aid for this yearand what he called safeguard clauses, including one that vetoes “the import of fruits and vegetables treated with pesticides that are prohibited here in Europe and we do it with a precedent of what Europe will do, it is the symbol of a new policy, a mirror clause,” he assured.
A day earlier, four meetings were held in Emmanuel Macron's Administration to address the situation, so his Government was expected to announce measures this Thursday to calm the farmers' fury.
Shortly before, the Government of Portugal announced an aid package of 500 million euros for farmers, an attempt to stop the shock wave of mobilizations and blockades from reaching its territory.
Among the measures, the Minister of Agriculture, Maria do Ceu Antunes, announced a 55% reduction in the diesel fuel tax for the agricultural sector and an additional 120 million euros to support organic farming and mixed farming.
Some €200 million was allocated to mitigate the impact of a prolonged drought on farmers' incomes.
“We are very aware of the difficulties of the last four years (…) This package seeks to satisfy the expectations of farmers,” said Ceu Antunes.
With Reuters, AP and local media
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