Protesting farmers descended on the city’s European Quarter on Monday, stepping up their action against difficulties they blame on EU green policies, price pressures and import competition.
A huge convoy of tractors travelled along the main thoroughfare, Rue de la Loi, heading towards the Schuman roundabout – not far from where EU agriculture ministers are meeting – under heavy guard by Belgian police.
Law enforcers set up barbed wire outside EU institutions and met the rowdy crowd with water cannons. Protesters set tyres on fire, threw manure into the street and pelted police with hay.
Belgian and Italian unions brought with them a laundry list of grievances, from falling incomes and excessive environmental burdens to underpayments to food companies and lower prices for foreign goods. These are the same issues that brought farmers to Brussels three weeks ago when they toppled a statue and threw eggs at the European Parliament. Mark Wulfrancke, policy officer of the Flemish General Farmers’ Syndicate (Algemeen Boerensyndicaat), said:
“We’re here today because we want genuine agriculture and food laws. At the national level, politicians always point at [the EU] — we’re here so that they can’t do that anymore.”
Imports of Ukrainian grain, chicken and sugar are a common concern, as is the fear of being flooded with cheap South American beef if the EU enters into a trade agreement with Mercosur countries.
Protests by farmers expressing similar discontent have erupted across Europe. Polish farmers are blocking the Ukrainian border, and French farmers last week seized the headquarters of dairy company Lactalis and attacked a milk truck to protest the prices the company pays.
