Angry farmers on tractors protest at EU summit about costs and bureaucracy
Convoys with hundreds of angry farmers driving heavy-duty tractors created chaos outside the European Union’s headquarters on Thursday, demanding leaders at a summit provide relief from rising prices and bureaucracy.
Farmers pelted police in Brussels with fireworks, eggs and beer bottles through thick smoke from burning bales of hay.
Security forces used water cannons to douse fires and keep a farmer from felling a tree on the steps of the European Parliament.
It is the culmination of weeks of protests around the bloc, whose farmers say it is becoming harder than ever to make a decent living as energy and fertiliser costs surge because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, more and cheaper farm imports make it hard to compete, and climate change-fuelled droughts, floods or fires destroy crops.
Farmers are a key electoral group, at EU and national levels, and leaders have scrambled to respond to their demands ahead of EU parliamentary elections in June.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, announced plans on Wednesday to shield farmers from cheap import s from Ukraine during wartime and allow farmers to use some land that had been forced to lie fallow for environmental reasons.
Earlier in the week, the government in France, where the protests have been particularly disruptive, showered farmers with promises of help, including emergency aid and controls on imported food.
The farmers also pushed their way on to the agenda at Thursday’s EU summit, which was supposed to be laser-focused on providing financial aid to Ukraine for its war against invading Russia.
Leaders agreed a deal on giving the war-torn country a new support package, but Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said the farmers’ demands needed to be addressed.
“We also need to make sure that they can get the right price for the high quality products that they provide. We also need to make sure that the administrative burden that they have remains reasonable,” said Mr De Croo, whose country currently holds the presidency of the EU.
It was not clear, however, if any concrete proposals would emerge from the meeting.
Jean-Francois Ricker, a farmer from southern Belgium, braved the winter night close to EU headquarters.
“There will be a lot of people. We are going to show that we do not agree and that it is enough, but our aim is not to demolish everything,” he said as the rumble of tractor engines and blaring horns pierced Brussels’ early morning.
Similar protests, mostly attended by young farmers supporting families, have been held across the EU for most of the week.
Demonstrators blocked traffic arteries across Belgium, France and Italy on Wednesday, as they sought to disrupt trade at major ports and other economic lifelines.