Farmers on tractors create chaos outside EU summit
Brussels: Farmers in convoys of tractors created chaos outside the European Union’s headquarters on Thursday, pelting police with firecrackers, eggs and beer bottles as they demanded leaders at an EU summit provide relief from rising prices and bureaucracy.
With thick smoke from burning bales of hay hanging over parts of Belgian capital, security forces used water cannons to douse fires and keep a farmer from felling a tree on the steps of the European Parliament.
Thursday’s are the culmination of weeks of protests around the bloc, whose farmers say it’s 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 both at the EU and national levels and leaders have scrambled to respond to their demands ahead of EU parliamentary elections in June. In recent weeks, populist and hard-right politicians have latched on to the farmers’ plight.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, announced plans on Wednesday to shield farmers from cheap imports 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 cash aid and controls on imported food.
The farmers also pushed their way onto 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 managed to quickly seal a deal on giving the war-torn country a new 50-billion-euro (USD 54 billion) support package but Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said the farmers’ demands need 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 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 of the 27 leaders.
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.
