Farmers protest throughout Europe, at EP. Highways blocked in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands

New farmers’ protests take place at the European Parliament on the day when the president of the European Commission delivers a speech to the MEPs.

Extraordinary security measures were taken to block the access of the 500 protesters present in Strasbourg. The farmers who came with tractors walk in a column and head towards the European Parliament. Police crews were sent to the scene to ensure that the protest would not escalate. Increased security measures have been taken in the area.

The farmers have flags and placards and are demanding that their demands be resolved.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed on Tuesday the withdrawal of a bill intended to halve the use of pesticides in the EU, which was blocked by MEPs and criticized in the recent farmers’ protests.

Central to the European Green Deal, the June 2022 draft legislation on pesticides proposed by Brussels planned to halve EU-wide use and risks of plant protection chemicals by 2030 (compared to 2015-2017). The proposal, which was rejected at the end of November in the European Parliament, while the negotiations between the states were deadlocked, “has become a symbol of polarization”, she told the EP plenary in Strasbourg.

Highways blocked in Spain, Belgium, the Nethelands

Spanish farmers blocked traffic on some of the country’s most important highways on Tuesday, joining their European counterparts in protesting high costs, red tape and competition from non-EU countries.

Spanish farmers block cars ASAJA and other farmers’ unions have called for protests since Thursday, but many farmers took to the streets with their tractors on Tuesday, creating traffic jams across the country, from Seville and Granada in the south to Girona, near the border. with France, stated the officials in charge of traffic management.  

In Girona, tractors could be seen gathering the day before the protests, carrying signs that read “without farmers there is no food”.

Like their colleagues in France, Belgium, Italy and Portugal, Spanish farmers complain about increasingly cumbersome European bureaucracy, the low prices they receive for their produce and rising costs. They argue that the rules imposed on European farmers to protect the environment make them less competitive than farmers in other regions, such as Latin America or non-EU countries. In recent days, the blockades set up by farmers in France and Belgium have escalated in some cases into violent confrontations with the police.

Hundreds of farmers demonstrated in the Netherlands, blocking highways and lighting fires, according to Dutch police and media. Law enforcement did not announce whether people were arrested. Farmers in Belgium and the Netherlands joined a wave of demonstrations started by farmers in France in January and which then spread to Germany, Poland, Romania, Greece and Italy. The demands of farmers are almost identical in all these countries – too low incomes, inflation, foreign competition, an “explosion” of fuel prices.

The European Commission (EC) promised on Thursday evening, in an attempt to quell the anger, measures to defend the “legitimate interests” of farmers in the European Union (EU) – namely by reducing the “administrative burden” of the Policy Agricultural Commons (PAC) targeted by the demonstrators.

Bulgarian farmers will block five border crossing points with Romania

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) has issued a travel warning for Bulgaria, where, starting on Tuesday, there will be farmers’ protests, which will lead to traffic restrictions. At the same time, the border crossing points from Giurgiu-Ruse, Vidin-Calafat, Silistra-Ostrov Călărași, Kardam-Negru Vodă and Durankulak-Vama Veche will be blocked.

According to the MAE, in Bulgaria, in accordance with the data published by the National Association of Cereal Producers, protest actions will be carried out, starting from February 6, in the time interval 10:00 – 12:00, by blocking the main roads and border crossing points. In the case of the common border with Romania, the following spaces are considered for protests: Danube Bridge I (Giurgiu-Ruse), Danube Bridge II (Calafat-Vidin), the localities of Tutrakan, Silistra, Kardam and Durankulak.

Also, the Bulgarian agricultural producers intend to block intersections and important road segments inside the Bulgarian territory, such as the Sofia-Ruse section, near the village of Gorni Dabnik and near the village of Lukovit.

MAE recommends Romanian citizens to carefully follow the situation at the border points located on the common border with the Republic of Bulgaria, to strictly respect the temporary road signs installed and the indications/signals of the control bodies on site.