At least Thousands of tractors from different parts of Europe came to Brussels and tried to shut down the city. This Thursday, European Union Heads of State and Government are meeting at an informal summit. Demand more support for the countryside and condemn high costs They say they are faced with meeting the new climate and sustainability targets to which the 27 have committed.
Although agricultural policy was not on the agenda of leaders trying to persuade Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Roban to lift his veto on $50 billion in joint aid to Ukraine over four years, some leaders raised the issue. I suggested that They want this issue to be discussed Moreover.
According to a preliminary count by the Brussels Police, at least a thousand tractors gathered in the streets surrounding the European quarter early on Thursday, including the square that provides access to the main entrance to the European Parliament and the streets near the Council. Heads of state are coming. “This is not the Europe we want” or “We are tired of words, we want actionSome of the slogans that can be read in different languages appear on the banners hung by farmers in Luxembourg Square in front of the European Parliament, where protesters burned many tires. Authorities, Strengthened the already tight police force This comes as the city hosts European summits.
When he arrived at the leaders’ meeting, the liberal Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo said he found the farmers’ complaints “partially legitimate” because they had already made “many efforts” to adapt to the ecological transition and They must be guaranteed to “get fair prices” for their products.
President Emmanuel Macron of France, where farmers in his country have been organizing major protests for days, also announced on the eve of the summit that he intends to bring the issue of agriculture to the discussion of the Twenty-Seven, with elements such as: the impact of commercial agreements with third parties. Macron openly rejects free trade agreement that EU and Mercosur are trying to close and is pressing for a halt to negotiations that conflict with the interests of other partners, such as Spain, for whom this agreement is a priority.
In a bid to calm farmers’ morale, and just a few months before the European elections in June, the European Commission on Wednesday proposed postponing by a year farmers’ obligation to leave part of their cropland fallow to receive some of the support. From the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). However, to benefit from this flexibility, manufacturers Reserve some of your land for other crops that benefit soil health.