EU leaders pledge more concessions to appease angry farmers

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EU leaders vowed to ease the burden of environmental rules in an attempt to quell protests by farmers, who demolished statues and started fires in Brussels during a summit on Thursday.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said after the leaders’ meeting that more changes would be put forward this month to cut red tape for farmers and rethink a recent wave of climate-related legislation.

“I think it is fair to say that our farmers have shown remarkable resilience . . . but many challenges remain,” said von der Leyen. “The farmers can count on European support.”

Tractors rolled into Brussels and blocked major arteries and squares less than 1km from where leaders were gathered, with riot police setting up rings of barricades to prevent farmers reaching the summit building.

The demonstration in the EU capital follows weeks of farmers’ protests in Germany, France, Belgium and other countries this month, during which roads and ports were blocked, and truck drivers attacked.

“A number of heads of government here . . . understand the pressures that our farmers are under — whether it is increased energy costs or fertiliser costs or new environmental regulation,” said Ireland’s Premier Leo Varadkar as he arrived at the summit. “It has been layer on layer for farmers.”

In joint conclusions, leaders said they had “discussed the challenges” to the agricultural sector and would look at ways to address the situation.

Alexander De Croo, the Belgian premier whose government holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, said that among the measures being considered were ways to help farmers manage price fluctuations and cut their administrative burden.

EU agriculture ministers had been asked to come up with a plan at a meeting on February 26, he said.

In France, where farmers have been blockading motorways around Paris and throughout the country in recent days, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced a series of measures, including a pledge to rethink pesticide reduction targets and a potential import ban on fruits and vegetables treated with the insecticide thiacloprid, which is prohibited in Europe. 

Two of France’s main agricultural unions — FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs — said the measures were enough to pause their actions.

“We are calling on our networks [to] suspend the blockages and enter into a new form of mobilisation”, said JA president Arnaud Gaillot.

France is the EU’s biggest agricultural producer and the bloc’s biggest recipient of subsidies from the near-€60bn annual Common Agricultural Policy.  

The recently appointed French prime minister last week angered the Spanish government when he said he would tackle “unfair competition” from farmers in “neighbouring countries”. Several Spanish lorries were later seized by demonstrating farmers and their produce destroyed.

Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s premier, said after the summit that he had raised the issue with French President Emmanuel Macron and “condemned the attacks on our drivers”. He said Spain applied the same laws as France.

In Belgium, farmers have also blockaded the port of Zeebrugge and blocked some supermarket warehouses.

“We need a fair price for our products,” said Pol Latinis, a Belgian dairy farmer at the demonstration.

De Croo, who was joined by von der Leyen and the Dutch PM at a meeting with farming groups in Brussels on Thursday, called for calm: “Please don’t vandalise the city”, he said.

Critics of the protests have pointed to the high level of subsidies and the influence that the farming lobby already holds over policymaking in Brussels and EU capitals.

Varadkar and Macron are among leaders who have called for a halt to a trade treaty with Latin American countries in the Mercosur bloc, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Farmers say that policymakers have been hypocritical in negotiating a deal that would allow increased imports of beef, soyabeans and other products that are not subject to the same stringent environmental and welfare rules that they face in Europe.

Copa Cogeca, the biggest agricultural lobby group in the EU, warned the commission on Wednesday that the Mercosur deal was “unacceptable for most EU farmers” and that a “push for getting the deal across the line will be perceived as a further provocation by the farming community”.

Additional reporting by Henry Foy in Brussels