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A farmer’s tractor drives in front of the Colosseum in Rome on Friday, February 9, 2024, to protest against government and EU agriculture. Mirroring protests across Europe, Italian farmers are also protesting, demanding changes to the European Union’s agricultural policy and measures to combat rising production costs. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
MADRID (AP) – Farmers in Italy, Spain and Poland on Friday warned of rising production costs, lower profits and unfair competition from non-EU countries as part of ongoing protests against the European Union’s agricultural policies. A demonstration was held to demand countermeasures.
Similar protests have occurred across the bloc in recent weeks. Farmers complain that the 27-nation EU’s policies on the environment and other issues are costing them money, making their produce more expensive than imports from outside the EU.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, has made several concessions in recent weeks, including shelving plans to halve the use of pesticides and other hazardous substances. Nevertheless, protests grew.
In Poland, where imports of cheap grain, milk and other agricultural products from Ukraine have caused particular outrage, farmers have been driving tractors across the country to reduce traffic and block major roads, with some Some farmers held up signs that read, “EU policies are ruining Polish farmers.”
Access roads to the Ukrainian border crossings in Khrebenne and Drokhask in the east were blocked by tractors, allowing only light traffic to pass.
In the western city of Poznan, police estimated that around 1,400 tractors entered the roads and reached the regional governor’s office. The demonstrators set off smoke bombs and placed a coffin symbolizing the death of Polish agriculture and a wheelbarrow full of fertilizer with an EU flag stuck on it. No acts of violence were reported.
Agriculture Minister Czesław Siekielski said he understood the complaints and would talk to the farmers, who were also protesting on behalf of Polish consumers.
Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosinak-Kamisz has called on Janusz Wojciechowski, Poland’s EU commissioner for agriculture and former Polish agriculture minister, to resign. There was no immediate response from Wojciechowski.
Organizers the Union of Individual Farmers Solidarity said EU policies had triggered the protests.
“The protests are directed at European Union policies, the Green Deal, and policies that allow unrestricted imports of agricultural products from Ukraine,” Adrian Wawrzyniak, a spokesperson for the union, told The Associated Press.
He said storage warehouses are full of Ukrainian grain, causing prices to fall by 40% in 2023. Demand for sugar, milk and meat in Poland is falling, and as a result farmers are holding back on investment.
Farmers also fear that the EU’s Green Deal, which calls for limits on chemical use and greenhouse gas emissions, will lead to lower production and incomes. They say the EU’s requirement that 4% of agricultural land be dedicated to biodiversity and landscape protection will also have a negative impact on agricultural production.
In Italy, a small convoy of tractors moved across Rome’s historic center to the Colosseum, escorted by police patrols.
Peasants have been peacefully protesting on the outskirts of Rome and across the country for several days to express their dissatisfaction.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has repeatedly said that her right-wing government is already addressing some of the farmers’ key demands, but that she feels many of them are being ignored.
A meeting between representatives of farmers’ organizations and Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida was convened on Friday afternoon. Many Italian farmers say they do not feel represented by large sector organizations and are kept out of their daily struggles.
Spanish farmers took similar actions during their fourth consecutive day of protests.
Separate to EU policy, Spanish farmers say laws aimed at ensuring wholesalers at big supermarkets pay fair prices for their products are not being enforced as consumer prices soar. claims.
Friday’s protests were centered in the northern cities of Oviedo, Pamplona and Zaragoza, with tractors clogging several city streets and commuter roads. In many places, farmers continued their protests throughout the night.
Groups not affiliated with Spain’s three main agricultural associations called on farmers to move to Madrid at midnight to join Saturday’s protest near the headquarters of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party.
Demonstrations are expected to continue in the coming weeks, with a large protest planned to be organized in the capital on February 21st.
Spanish media outlets have reported that many of the protests are linked to conservative and far-right groups.
Police said 20 people were arrested during this week’s protests.
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Monika Scislowska reported from Warsaw, Poland, and Giada Zampano from Rome.
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