Farmers protesting in Brussels, Madrid, press ministers to act
Send a link to a friend
[February 26, 2024]
By Kate Abnett and David Latona
BRUSSELS/MADRID (Reuters) -Farmers set fire to piles of tyres in
Brussels on Monday in a protest to demand action on cheap supermarket
prices and free trade deals, as agricultural ministers from across the
EU met to discuss the crisis in the sector.
Riot police fired water cannon at protesters throwing bottles and eggs,
while about 900 tractors jammed parts of Brussels, a short distance from
the cordoned off area where ministers were meeting.
Farmers have been protesting for weeks across Europe to demand action
from policymakers on an array of pressures they say the sector is under
- from cheap supermarket prices, to low-cost imports that undercut local
producers, to strenuous EU environmental rules.
Another protest took place on Monday in Madrid, where farmers from
across Spain blew whistles, rang cowbells and beat drums, urging the EU
to cut red tape and drop some changes to its Common Agriculture Policy
(CAP).
"It's impossible to stand these rules, they want us to work on the field
during the day and deal with paperwork at night - we're sick of the
bureaucracy," said Roberto Rodriguez, who grows cereal and beetroots in
the central province of Avila.
"The new CAP is ruining our lives," said Juan Pedro Laguna, 46,who grows
olives, cereal and vegetables near Madrid. "We want to produce like
we've always done, but they don't want us to produce."
TIME AT DESK
Agriculture ministers were set to debate a new set of EU proposals to
ease the pressure on farmers, including a reduction in farm inspections
and the possibility to exempt small farms from some environmental
standards.
German Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir said the EU needed to ensure
farmers could earn good money if they opted for biodiversity and green
measures and talked of existing EU farm policy as being a "bureaucracy
monster".
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Nov/22/images/ads/current/llc_sda_BASKETBALL_2023.png)
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/022624PIX/news_u42.jpg)
People walk between tractors during a protest of European farmers
over price pressures, taxes and green regulation, on the day of an
EU Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium February 26,
2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Feb/26/images/ads/current/xamis_lda_ANIMAL_2024.png)
"The average farmer spends a quarter of their time at their desks,"
he said.
In response to weeks of protests by angry farmers, the EU has
already weakened some parts of its flagship Green Deal environmental
policies, scrapping a goal to cut farming emissions from its 2040
climate roadmap.
The EU has also withdrawn a law to reduce pesticides and delayed a
target for farmers to leave some land fallow to improve
biodiversity.
Local grievances vary, and not all farmers call for an end to green
rules. Morgan Ody, General Coordinator of farming organisation La
Via Campesina, said at the Brussels protest that for most farmers:
"It's about income."
"It's about the fact that we are poor, and that we want to make a
decent living," she said.
She called on the EU to set up minimum support prices and exit free
trade agreements that enable imports of cheaper foreign produce.
"We are not against climate policies. But we know that in order to
do the transition, we need higher prices for products because it
costs more to produce in an ecological way," she said.
(Reporting by Yves Herman, Christian Levaux, Philip Blenkinsop and
Kate Abnett in Brussels, David Latona in Madrid; Writing by Ingrid
Melander and Kate Abnett; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Angus
MacSwan)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |