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Written by Marco Trujillo and Philip Blenkinsop
PARIS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The French government said on Wednesday farmers blocked highways in France and Belgium to protect a wholesale food market in Paris as protests spread across Europe, a sign of rising tensions. Armored vehicles were dispatched.
Farmers in Spain and Italy said they were taking part in a protest movement aimed at pressuring governments to ease environmental regulations and protect farmers from rising costs and cheaper imports. This protest movement is also taking place in Germany.
With all eyes on the EU summit scheduled for Thursday, the EU Executive Committee proposed restricting agricultural imports from Ukraine and easing some environmental regulations.
But that appears not to be enough to quell the anger of farmers, who said they will continue to block highways and ports until all their demands are met.
“What is happening now stems from the accumulation of rules that were initially accepted and then become too much,” said Arnaud Rousseau, head of France’s powerful trade union FNSEA.
Protests have so far been largely peaceful, with French farmers spraying liquid fertilizer on local prefectural offices and setting tires on fire, but police said Wednesday that 18 people were killed in a standoff. was arrested.
Prefectural police officials said the suspects were driving tractors and trying to disrupt the wholesale food market in Rungis, Paris, a hub for agricultural products shipped to France and abroad. Previously, police had allowed farmers to block the highway without entering.
Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin warned that farmers’ protests on highways would be tolerated, but that police would not allow farmers to block the airport or Rungis market.
In total, about 100 locations are under lockdown.
BFM television showed footage of a standoff near the Loire River after police stopped a tractor from approaching Paris. The footage also showed the tractor leave the road and rumble across a field to avoid police.
Farmers say they are underpaid, oppressed by taxes and green rules, and exposed to unfair competition from abroad.
“If things continue as they are, the end of agriculture means the end of civilization,” said Belgian farmer Adeline Desmecht, 28, criticizing excessive regulations and red tape.
In Belgium, farmers blocked access roads to the Zeebrugge container port for two days. A protest organizer who gave his name as Bruno said more than 100 tractors were taking part in the blockade.
A spokesperson for the port of Antwerp-Bruges said farmers had also begun blocking trucks from entering and exiting the port of Antwerp, Europe’s second-largest port.
Belgium’s main highways were also closed.
Farmers in Italy have used hundreds of tractors to block traffic in recent days near highway access points in areas such as the outskirts of Milan and Tuscany.
Farmers’ group Coldiretti announced that more than 1,000 of its members will be heading to Brussels to take part in a demonstration in front of the European Parliament on Thursday.
French farmers have already won some concessions, including the government reversing plans to phase out subsidies for agricultural diesel.
In another step to quell farmers’ anger, the Agriculture Ministry announced an additional 230 million euros in aid to French wine producers.
The European Commission on Wednesday proposed restricting agricultural imports from Ukraine.
The proposal, which must be approved by EU governments and the European Parliament, would introduce an “emergency brake” on poultry, eggs and sugar, the most sensitive products imported from Ukraine, and would reduce import volumes by 2022. Allows for tariffs to be imposed if they exceed average levels in 2023.
It would also allow EU member states to take temporary measures if their own markets are disrupted by a surge in imports of other agricultural products.
The European Commission also proposed exempting farmers in 2024 from the requirement to maintain a minimum occupancy of land while receiving EU subsidies, another important requirement for farmers.
Imports from Ukraine, which the EU has exempted from quotas and tariffs since the Russian invasion in February 2022, and the resumption of negotiations to conclude trade agreements with South American countries in the Mercosur bloc are encouraging farmers to view them as unfair competition. It’s stirring up dissatisfaction.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire reiterated that Paris does not want to conclude the deal as it stands because there is a lack of guarantees that imported products must meet EU rules. However, the European Commission said it was still aiming to conclude a free trade agreement.
The protests across Europe are ahead of June’s European Parliament elections, in which the far-right, whose growing support base includes farmers, is expected to gain momentum.
(Marco Trujillo, Abdul Sabour, Jean-Stéphane Bros, Gus Trompis, Dominique Vidalon, Benoît van Overstraeten, Geert de Clerk in Paris, Charlotte van Campenhout in Amsterdam, Brussels) (Reporting by Phil Brennikinsop, Alvise Armellini in Rome; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Ross Russell and Gareth Jones)
Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.
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