With a summit of EU leaders taking place on Thursday, the EU's executive Commission has put forward proposals to restrict agricultural imports from Ukraine and relax some green regulations.
However, these announcements did not stop many farmers from Belgium and beyond from driving their tractors into downtown Brussels ahead of a protest scheduled to coincide with the conference on Thursday.
Tractors were seen around the European Parliament, while police sealed off the Commission and Council buildings.
“We as farmers are planning to go to Brussels and put up barricades because the leaders are meeting on Thursday,” said Belgian farmer Eddy Dewite on the side of a highway blocked by tractors.
Another Belgian farmer, Luca Mouton, 26, said: "Time is running out. EU leaders must think about farmers. We are ready for dialogue."
French farmers protest, using cars to block the entrance to Paris. Photo: Reuters
Although the farmers' crisis is not officially on the agenda of the EU Summit, it will certainly be discussed, at least on the sidelines.
Farmers say they don't earn enough to live on, are squeezed by taxes and green regulations and face unfair competition from abroad.
The protests across Europe come ahead of European Parliament elections in June, in which the far-right, of which farmers represent a growing constituency, is seen making gains.
The protests have so far been largely peaceful , although French farmers have sprayed local government buildings with liquid manure and burned tires. Paris police arrested 79 people at the Rungis food market on Thursday. Police said those arrested had entered a warehouse, causing an unspecified amount of damage inside.
The market is the heart of French produce and beyond and one of the largest in the world , it has become a symbolic target for angry farmers, many of whom have travelled hundreds of kilometres on tractors to get there.
Imports from Ukraine, which the EU has exempted from quotas and tariffs since Russia's attack in February 2022, as well as new negotiations on concluding a trade deal with South American countries in the Mercosur bloc have fueled farmers' discontent.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire reiterated that Paris does not want the Mercosur free trade agreement to be concluded in its current form because of a lack of guarantees that imported products would meet EU rules. However, the European Commission said it was still aiming to conclude the deal.
Mai Anh (according to Reuters)
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