BRUSSELS. Almost a month after the first farmers’ protest which blocked much of Brussels, today they returned to the capital with their tractors for a new demonstration. Hundreds of vehicles have reached the Belgian capital in conjunction with the Agriculture Council which will have to examine the European Commission’s proposals to lighten the fiscal and bureaucratic burdens borne by the category.
Farmers have been engaged for several weeks in a campaign against excessively strict European environmental regulations and are calling on the European Union to withdraw from free trade agreements and, in particular, the Mercosur agreement with South American countries. The treaty between the EU and Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay will be discussed in Brussels today and aims to allow low-cost products to enter their respective markets and farmers want to permanently stop negotiations on this agreement.
From increases to imports, all the reasons for the tractor protest Emanuele Bonini 02 February 2024
The tractor protest in Brussels, the European Quarter in haywire – live
This morning the protesters’ aim is to arrive right in front of the Council headquarters, in the European Quarter. 1500 tractors are expected from every corner of Belgium, but also from Holland, Germany and France. The police have cordoned off the entire area. Four tunnels, vital traffic arteries, were closed. Just as the Schuman and Maelbeek metro stations, those close to the headquarters of the European institutions, were blocked.
In the meantime, dozens of tractors invaded the historic center, penetrating up to the iconic Grand Place. The event was organized by Fugea (the Federation of Belgian breeders), Fwa (the Walloon Federation of Agriculture) and Fja, the Federation of Young Farmers. A delegation from Coldiretti will also be present at the sit-in in front of the European Parliament. While Confraagricoltura will hold its assembly today in Brussels.
Meanwhile, a few tens of meters from the headquarters of the European Commission and the Council, the demonstrators also tried to force their way through a police blockade with tractors, located at the intersection of Avenue d’Auderghem and Rue Belliard, in the area where the institutions are located Europeans. The protesters dumped hay on the asphalt and set fire to a mountain of piled up tires. Riot control officers intervened with water cannons to put out the flames.
Tractors in Brussels, police water cannons put out the fires
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Also present were thousands of Italian farmers, who in a procession, led by the national president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini, are reaching the vicinity of the European Parliament. «We are here – explains Prandini – to ask for exhaustive answers within certain times to the needs of our companies and to undermine those regulations that make no sense. For this reason we have implemented constant mobilization work, but also direct relations with the European institutions. A large organization like Coldiretti has the duty to transform the protest into concrete proposals, in the awareness that most of the crucial battles for the future of our campaigns are fought precisely in Brussels.” For this reason, the president highlights «we have also prepared a document on the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy, nrd) for the next few years, which must be simple and in line with the needs of businesses. We must say enough to the contrast between agriculture and the environment desired by Timmermans, farmers are the first environmental protection.”
The measures were anticipated by Prandini in a letter to the president of the EU Commission Ursula Von der Leyen. The national delegate of Coldiretti Giovani Impresa, Stefani Parisi, the organization says, will be the only Italian to participate at 2.30 pm, together with the young delegates of 10 other organizations present in Brussels, in the meeting with the EU Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski and with the current president of the Agrifish Council, David Clarinval.
(ansa)
The reactions of politicians
Clarinval, Minister of Agriculture of Belgium (EU rotating presidency), said that «on community agricultural policies we have made a request to the 27 member states aimed at collecting all the suggestions for improvements, simplification and flexibility. We received 500 proposals.” «We will analyze them: we have sent them to the Commission and we hope that the answers obtained will be sufficient». “Today,” he added, “we will examine the European Commission’s proposals to respond to farmers’ requests.” Regarding the ongoing demonstrations in Brussels, he said: «Aggression is not a good way to negotiate. We understand the farmers’ anger, we also understand someone is in a difficult situation, but aggression has never been a source of solutions. Negotiation is the best way”
Latvia
«More predictability is needed in the CAP, some current climate objectives for 2030 are essentially impossible for Latvia to achieve. If we reach them, GDP and production will fall significantly. These criteria must be changed” said the Minister of Agriculture of Latvia, Armands Krauze, arriving at the Agriculture Council. «It is not the end of the Green deal, it is the beginning of a new approach», he highlighted. «When the CAP was approved in 2021 the conditions were different. There was no war, Ukraine could export its grain to Africa”, he reiterated.
Hungary
On the Common Agricultural Policy “first of all we would like to adopt short-term measures” to “reduce control mechanisms”. «We would like to get exemptions because we see that the administrative burdens arise mainly from the administrative provisions and requests of the Commission and I think we will get less administrative burdens if we make changes and provisions in this way, but the question is what kind of provisions and what kind of measures, what we need to change. So today in the EU Council debate I hope that we can reach a common position on the next steps in the next few weeks of work, for the next few months” said Zsolt Feldman, Secretary of State for Agriculture of Hungary, arriving in Brussels. «Farmers are very worried about the future, so the Hungarian Government would like to achieve great results in the common European agricultural policy to adopt long, medium and short term measures – he reported -. So today in the council meeting we made 45 different types of proposals on how to achieve a common agricultural policy that is favorable to farmers and works with less administrative burden.”
Italia
“In our document, which comes before the Commission’s proposals, we asked for a review, which must be rapid and which must make us understand in what direction it is going” in the Common Agricultural Policy, the CAP, declared the Minister of Agriculture and Sovereignty food, Francesco Lollobrigida, before the start of the farmers’ demonstrations. «We ask to develop production as a central element, guarantee the income of agricultural businesses, because without income passion is not enough to continue carrying out an activity, and without agriculture we believe that there is no possibility of keeping a cultural heritage together and of riches that this world represents and which is vital for us as Italy”, he explained. «We Italians have a duty to feel co-responsible for European choices but to influence them, we are not a second-rate nation. We are a founding nation, one of the two most important nations in agri-food, we are one of the three most important nations from every other point of view and therefore we have the duty to set the tone. And in the last 16 months we have managed to do this more than in previous years”, he added. «When someone notices an error, they can change their ways: the CAP was written badly, it was poorly made», he underlined.
France
«The Green deal must also be a production deal. It must ensure European production capacity. Otherwise we lose elements of our sovereignty” declared the French Agriculture Minister, Marc Fesneau, upon his arrival at the Agriculture Council. “It’s not that you can’t make the transition but you have to take into consideration the reality of things,” he highlighted.
Spain
We are “faced with a European problem” to which we need to give “a European solution”, and Spain will begin its speech at the EU Agriculture Council, “claiming the need for a new great European pact for our farmers and the rural world” said Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas upon arriving in Brussels. «This new great pact» will be the «best instrument» to have farmers «at our side and so that they understand and support the transformation process that we are carrying out», added the minister underlining that «it is important to re-establish the trust that has route”.