HALLE, Belgium (AP) — Farmer More traffic arteries blocked across Belgium, France and Italy on Wednesday sought to disrupt trade at major ports and other economic lifelines. They also moved to Brussels on the eve of a major European Union summit to continue calling for higher prices for agricultural products and less bureaucracy at work.
on the other hand, Days of growing dissatisfaction French police arrested 91 protesters who broke into Europe’s biggest food market on Wednesday, the Paris police chief said. Armored vehicles are blocking the entrance to the vast compound in Rungis, south of the French capital.
The protests had an immediate impact on Wednesday, when the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, announced plans to protect farmers from flooding. cheap export goods The project made part of the land acquired from Ukraine during the war, which had been forced to fallow for environmental reasons, available to farmers.
The plan still needs approval from the 27 member states and the European Parliament, but it amounted to a sudden symbolic concession.
“I would like to reassure them that we are doing everything we can to listen to their concerns. We are currently addressing two very important (concerns) of them. I think so,” said European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčović.
The rally is part of agricultural protests across the EU and shows how just a few hundred tractors can cause traffic jams in metropolitan areas from Berlin to Paris, Brussels and Rome. Millions of people across the bloc are facing disruption, struggling to get to work or seeing their doctor’s appointments canceled because protests have blocked their path.
“It obviously has a big economic impact, not only for us but also for many companies in Flanders and Belgium,” said Sven Peters of ECS, a shipping company in Belgium’s Zeebrugge North Sea port.
In France, Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin reported 100 protests across France involving around 10,000 farmers, blocked the Rungis market and airport, and said any attempts to enter the capital would be “beyond the limit”. It was seen as a “red line where no action should be taken” and was used as a warning to the farmers besieging Paris.
Demonstrators held up a large banner reading “Paris, let our farmers pass” on the A6 motorway south of the French capital.
The climax is expected in Belgium on Thursday, when farmers plan to protest outside EU headquarters during a government summit. They will put their issues on the summit’s agenda and try to win some concessions on the financial burdens they face and increased competition from as far away as Chile and New Zealand.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo said: “It is important to listen to their views.” “They face huge challenges,” he said, from adapting to climate change to combating environmental pollution.
Belgium currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, and Decroo said he would address the issue during the summit as a late addition to the agenda, which centers on further support for Ukraine. Russia’s full-scale invasion It’s almost 2 years.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to postpone a free trade agreement with the South American country due to fierce opposition from EU farmers and said he planned to discuss the issue at a summit.
Despite the widespread inconvenience, EU governments are treating the largely peaceful protests with great care.
Spanish farmers were also trying to step up their protests. Spain’s three main agricultural organizations have agreed to launch a protest in the coming weeks calling for changes to EU policies they say are overly restrictive.
Back in France, the protesting farmers were trying to feed each other. And he had a sense of humor, camping out for days on a hay-strewn highway on his way to Paris.
Demonstrator Franck Chardon offered fresh croissants to some police near a tractor protest in Chilly-Mazarin, east of Paris, on Wednesday.
“French croissants are made with French flour and are of the highest quality,” he said.
“So, we’re going to give out croissants, and you’re going to let us through…I can understand that you don’t find this uninteresting,” he said. He spoke again, undaunted. “If you open the cordon, we can drive the tractor through, okay?”
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Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Alex Turnbull in Chilly-Mazarin, France, and Ciarán Giles in Madrid contributed to this report.