Hundreds of agricultural tractors have already entered the center of Brussels and the European district. Slurry spilled from tank trucks attached to some of them onto the streets. Today there is a big agricultural protest in connection with the meeting of the EU agriculture ministers.
- Farmers’ protest in Brussels continues.
- The main demand of the protesters is the withdrawal of the EU from free trade agreements, primarily with Mercosur countries.
- Farmers demand a halt to the import of agricultural products from outside Europe, which destroys the profitability of farm production in the EU.
The Belgian Federation of Young Farmers (FJA) and the Federation of Walloon Farmers (FUGEA) called for an invasion of the capital last week. According to Western media, the initiative was supported by agricultural organizations from all over Europe, including: Via Campesina organization (ECVC), bringing together farmers and agricultural companies.
In the opinion of EU farmers, the EU authorities conclude agreements with countries where producers have significantly lower production costs and do not have to comply with strict environmental protection and animal welfare regulations in force in the EU, which are harmful to domestic agriculture. According to the protesters, this means forcing European producers into unequal competition.
“We are coming back to repeat our most important demand: guarantee fair income for farmers. To do this, we must abandon the policy of free trade and market deregulation,” said Timothee Petel, a representative of the agricultural organization Fugea, in a statement for the Belgian station RTBF.
Brussels. Demands of protesting farmers
The main demand of the protesters is the withdrawal of the EU from free trade agreements, primarily with Mercosur countries. Farmers demand a halt to the import of agricultural products from outside Europe, which destroys the profitability of farm production in the EU. In addition, protesters in Brussels also demand fair prices for their products and reforms of the EU’s common agricultural policy. They oppose excessive bureaucracy, restrictions on agricultural production in the EU, and the Green Deal strategy. Trade unionists have announced that they want to use their actions to restore common sense and contact with reality to the European Commission.
Recent reports show that agricultural tractors have effectively paralyzed traffic in the capital of Belgium. There are already over 900 of them. Communication difficulties also apply to the metro. Several hundred machines have arrived in the Old Town and the European District, but more are at the city limits. Incidents of slurry being poured onto the streets were also reported. Tires were set on fire in front of the European Commission headquarters. The police tried to block the entrances of the tractor columns, but the tractors broke through. Riot forces use water cannons and gas against protesters.
Update:
News is reaching that the protest in Brussels is growing stronger and more violent. When the police extinguish the burning tires around the EC headquarters, farmers immediately set fire to new piles.
Firecrackers were thrown at the police, and there were fights between farmers and the security forces protecting the EU buildings. Tractors break through subsequent police blockades. The police allegedly used gas.
Update 2:
It started raining in Brussels, literally and figuratively. Due to the rain, the burning piles of tires are extinguished, but eggs, oranges and firecrackers were thrown at the police. In addition to slurry, farmers brought with them straw and manure, which are thrown into the streets. The number of tractors in the center increases by the minute. Currently, there are about a thousand of them.
Update 3:
The farmers’ protest in Brussels continues. The district with the buildings of the European Union authorities looks as if it had suffered a cataclysm or war.
Guaranteed price and intervention purchase
Today in Brussels, the European farmers’ association Via Campesina (ECVC) demanded not only the termination of free trade agreements unfavorable for farmers and the cessation of unfair competition on the EU market. The association has put forward a demand for clear regulation of purchase prices for agricultural products in the EU directive on prohibited commercial practices in the food supply chain. The law should guarantee farmers rates above production costs.
Representatives of the Italian industry association Coldiretti, who supported their Belgian colleagues in Brussels today, appealed to the European Commission to reform the CAP and distribute agricultural subsidies more fairly. The funds should support farmers in sustainable development. The association also speaks out against the deregulation of the law regarding genetic engineering. Coldiretti also demanded that the EC finally withdraw the idea of laying land fallow and suspending work on the emission directive.
Coldiretti also put forward a proposal to launch an intervention purchase and storage of grain in Europe to prevent the destabilization of the grain market by the inflow of Ukrainian goods.
According to Belgian media reports, a delegation of trade unionists is talking to the Minister of Agriculture of Belgium, David Clarinval, and the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, to present the demands of the farmers protesting in Brussels.
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