Czech farmers will join an international protest by Central and Eastern European agricultural organisations concerned about EU agricultural policy and the import of cheaper produce from Ukraine, Novinky reports.
As part of the mass action on 22 February, they will organise protest trips to border crossings where they will meet with colleagues from other countries. Before that, some farmers plan to travel to Prague on Monday with heavy machinery to block the motorway.
According to Barbora Pankova, spokeswoman for the Agrarian Chamber, it is impossible to predict how many tractors and other heavy machinery will head for the border. She said:
We cannot rule out that border crossings and road routes will be blocked.
Representatives of agricultural organisations from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Latvia discussed concerns about EU policies and their impact on agriculture with EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski from Monday to Tuesday in Otrebusy, on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland. They presented their demands to the commissioner.
Among their demands, there are compensation to farmers for complying with new environmental rules, getting rid of bureaucracy and a more transparent subsidy system, and better regulation of Ukrainian products entering the EU market. Jan Doležal, President of the Czech Chamber of Agriculture, said:
Only by co-ordinating our demands and acting together, we stand a chance of drawing attention to the desperate situation that European agriculture is currently facing and putting pressure on European and Czech politicians.
If the European Commission does not present a plan to address these problems, he said, farmers will block the border again.
Before that, however, some farmers plan to hold a protest in Prague, where they intend to block the motorway. They announced the protest on Monday outside the Ministry of Agriculture, which is located in Tesnov. Farmers want to draw attention to the poor state of Czech agriculture by blocking the Prague motorway.
They will also hand over a letter to Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný demanding that the Czech government withdraw from the Green Deal for Europe programme. Bohumír Dufek, chairman of the Agricultural and Food Workers’ Union and the Association of Free Trade Unions of the Czech Republic, and Zdeněk Jandejsek, former president of the Czech Chamber of Agriculture, said this at a press conference in Prague on Tuesday.
Between 600 and 1,000 tractors and other agricultural equipment could arrive in Prague on Monday, they said. Major industry organisations such as the Agrarian Chamber, the Agricultural Union and the Association of Private Agriculture will not join the protest.
However, the Prague City Council is concerned about the transport collapse. The farmers plan to arrive in the centre of Prague via motorways from different directions. The assembly points are on the D1, D4, D7, D8 and D11 motorways, from where convoys of tractors and agricultural machinery are likely to head into the city.
According to deputy mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirate Party), the city is trying to settle the protest with the Central Bohemian Region. He said:
The event will have a significant negative impact on traffic not only at the blockade site on the motorway, but also in the wider surroundings and, theoretically, on the approaches to Prague.
According to the municipality, the farmers plan to be at the ministry at 6 a.m. Monday, with “machinery will stop near the highway in both directions, completely blocking it.” Departure is expected around 11 a.m. Hřib added:
However, the event could also have a negative impact on public transport, including at the junction with the Central Bohemian Region. The equipment alone could block lanes on a motorway up to several kilometres long in each direction, so the police will try to provide at least perpendicular passages through the junctions in consultation with the organisers.
In its press release, the municipality noted that holding public events is enshrined in the Constitution, in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They are only notified to the authorities in advance, no authorisation is granted. The capital must also respect recent court decisions, where, for example, the Prague Municipal Court, according to the magistrate, “recognised the blocking of traffic as a legitimate protest, which the city and its inhabitants must tolerate”.
The Trade Union of Agricultural and Food Workers, the Association of Free Trade Unions of the Czech Republic, also announced a daily rally on the topic of agricultural economics in the Small Town Square from next Monday to Thursday, with up to three thousand people expected to attend.
The government office said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) and Agriculture Minister Marek Vyborny will hold talks with farmers’ representatives at Straka Academy this week on Thursday.
Back in January, Ukraine’s EU neighbours Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia complained that imports of Ukrainian agricultural products had disrupted their markets. This led to protests by farmers and truck drivers from these countries, and in Poland and Romania, agrarians blocked the borders with Ukraine.
In the Czech Republic last week, larger demonstrations took place in Ceska Lipa and Frydek Mistek on Tuesday, and on Friday farmers protesting against EU agricultural policies and what they see as insufficient government action on imports of cheaper agricultural products from Ukraine caused significant traffic congestion in many parts of Poland. The daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported that Poland has not seen such farmer protests in a long time, with roadblocks affecting more than 260 locations across the country.
However, Western European countries such as Germany, France, Belgium, Spain and Portugal have already seen large farmer protests this year. In these protests, farmers are opposing the EU’s Green Deal for Europe, which aims to achieve climate neutrality for the EU-27 by 2050. In their view, stricter environmental regulations reduce their ability to make a profit. Farmers also point to rising costs. They are also concerned about expensive credit, pressure on prices from buyers, weather fluctuations and, in addition, complaints about over-regulation.
As Brussels-based news server Politico notes, farmers in Germany are rioting mainly over government cuts to diesel subsidies. In France, where hundreds of tractors blockaded Paris in late January and farmers set fire to straw bales and tyres, protests are also against free trade agreements, such as those with the Mercosur group of South American nations. Agricultural products from these countries, like Ukrainian products, can compete more cheaply with European products.
Therefore, the main problem in recent years has been expensive energy and rising raw material prices, combined with a fall in the real prices that European farmers receive for their produce.
In early February, Politico wrote that “farmers are under pressure from powerful retailers and agrochemical firms”. According to the publication, the system of subsidies on which European farmers depend favours the big players. The war in Ukraine has only exacerbated the situation, and price rises for crops such as wheat have been short-lived. It has also changed the direction of trade flows, leading to a supply surplus, Politico adds.
