Brussels (Brussels Morning) – Farmers protest near EU headquarters, demanding relief from red tape and environmental regulations, resulting in clashes with police in Brussels.
Farmers threw beets, poured waste at police and set hay alight as hundreds of tractors again sealed off streets near the European Union headquarters, where agriculture ministers aimed to alleviate a crisis that has led to months of demonstrations across the 27-member bloc.
The farmers opposed what they see as excessive red tape and dishonest trading practices as well as expanded environmental measures and inexpensive imports from Ukraine. “Let us make a living from our profession,” read one billboard on a tractor barring a main thoroughfare littered with potatoes, eggs and manure.
As the protests shifted into violence again, police utilised tear gas and water cannons to keep farmers and some 250 tractors at the basin, even as ministers assembled to push through measures indicated to calm the crisis. Authorities requested commuters to stay out of Brussels and operate from home as much as possible.
Farmers, police and firefighters all had to administer injuries, but none were life-threatening. The government criticised the farmers for failing to contain damaging elements that threw e-bikes off a bridge and set the entrance to a subway station aflame. “The violence, arson and destruction during the protests are unacceptable,” stated Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden and insisted the guilty would be prosecuted.
With demonstrations taking place from Finland to Greece, Poland and Ireland, the farmers have already succeeded in concessions from EU and national authorities, from a loosening of authorities on farms to a weakening of pesticide and environmental regulations. A major EU plan to sufficiently protect nature in the 27-nation bloc and combat climate change was indefinitely delayed on Monday, underscoring how the demonstrations have had a deep influence on politics.
“In order to have a healthy Europe, there is a need for a strong agriculture. So we are here to remind them that their agriculturalists should be a priority,” stated Belgian farmer Yolin Targé. “We have to deal with a lot of organisational tasks. We have to deal with a lot of environmental restrictions. We are in acceptance of doing our best for the environment, but still, agriculture should be a priority.”
EU member mentioned that they gave their provisional acceptance to proposals that amount to clipping or cutting rules in areas like crop rotation, soil cover protection and tillage methods. Small farmers, conveying about two-thirds of the workforce and the most involved in the protest movement, will be excused from some controls and penalties.
The EU parliament is anticipated to decide on the recommendations in late April. Environmentalists and climate activists express that the change in EU policies under the stress of farmers is regrettable. They say the short-term benefits will come to haunt the bloc in a generation when climate change will strike the continent even harder.
Politically, the bloc has shifted to the right over the past year. The dilemma of farmers has become a rallying cry for populists and conservatives who argue EU climate and farm policies are little more than bureaucratic bungling from pretentious politicians who have lost any feeling for soil and land.
