Angry farmers clashed with riot police, toppled statues and surrounded the European Union's Brussels headquarters today ahead of a key summit.
Convoys of hundreds of angry farm workers driving heavy tractors advanced on headquarters, eager to have their complaints about excessive costs, rules and bureaucracy heard by the bloc's leaders.
After warming themselves by burning piles of pallets, farmers boarded their vehicles this morning and drove into the Belgian capital to the roar of engines, fireworks and blaring horns – the culmination of weeks of protests across the bloc.
The square in front of the EU Parliament filled with tractors and farmers lit campfires. As riot police stood guard behind barricades and employees watched from the front steps, the angry farmers threw eggs at the building.
According to a police estimate, major roads in Brussels, the heart of the European Union, were blocked by around 1,000 tractors.
Angry farmers clashed with riot police, toppled statues and surrounded the EU headquarters in Brussels (pictured throwing an egg at the headquarters) ahead of a key summit today.
Convoys of hundreds of angry farm workers (pictured) driving heavy tractors advanced toward headquarters, desperate to have their complaints about excessive costs, rules and bureaucracy heard by the bloc's leaders
This morning the square in front of the EU Parliament was filled with tractors and farmers lighting campfires. As riot police stood guard behind barricades and employees watched from the front steps, the angry farmers threw eggs at the building
Today you can see riot police forming a protective line in front of the EU headquarters in Brussels
Security forces in riot gear stood guard behind barriers at the EU headquarters, where leaders were due to meet, largely over a new support package to be sent to Ukraine for its ongoing, grinding war against Russia.
But farmers are likely to push their plight onto the informal agenda after causing chaos in EU countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Belgium.
Jean-Francois Ricker, a farmer from southern Belgium, braved the winter night near the EU headquarters and said he expected 1,000 to 1,400 vehicles.
“There will be a lot of people, we will show that we disagree and that it is enough, but our goal is not to destroy everything.”
Kevin Bertens, a farmer near Brussels, said: “When you see how many people we have here today, and when you see that it is everywhere in Europe, you have to have hope.”
“We have to hope that these people realize that agriculture is necessary.”
“It’s the food, you know,” he added.
A farmer throws an egg at the EU headquarters in Brussels today
Protesting farmers are throwing eggs ahead of an important EU summit in Brussels today
Burning tires can be seen in front of a group of protesting farmers in the center of Brussels today
Riot police spray water from a house in Brussels today to put out bonfires lit by farmers
A burning tire can be seen on the street in front of the EU Parliament building in Brussels today
A fallen statue can be seen in front of the Place du Luxembourg in Brussels. A statue of John Cockerill, a prominent 19th-century Anglo-Belgian industrialist, stands in the square and is surrounded by other industrialists from the period. This appears to be one of the small statues standing halfway up the pedestal, at the top of which is the statue of Cockerill
Farmers are burning straw and tires during a protest in front of the European Parliament today
According to a police estimate, major roads in Brussels, the heart of the European Union, were blocked by around 1,000 tractors
Today, farmers can be seen next to their tractors in the center of Brussels
Smoke rises from a burning fire as Belgian farmers blockade the European Union headquarters with their tractors today ahead of a key EU summit
A woman walks between a line of parked tractors in the center of Brussels today
Boots and flowers are placed on barricades in front of the European Parliament building
The demonstrators are farmers who feel increasingly under pressure, whether from higher energy prices, cheaper foreign competition that does not have to adhere to strict EU regulations, inflation, climate change – which is causing crops to wither, flood or burn – but also through the climate policy they have imposed on the EU.
Similar protests took place across the EU throughout most of the week.
On Wednesday, farmers blocked more arteries in Belgium, France and Italy as they tried to disrupt trade at major ports and other economic lifelines to get their message across to their governments and Brussels.
While the days of growing discontent were largely peaceful, French police on Wednesday arrested 91 protesters who forced their way into Europe's largest food market, the Paris police chief said.
Today, armored vehicles are blocking access to the extensive site in Rungis, south of the French capital, which supplies large parts of the city and its surroundings with electricity.
Peasants gathered in the square early this morning, lighting bonfires and toppling statues
Farmers sit next to a fire outside the European Parliament as they demonstrate on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels
A toppled statue can be seen in the square in front of the European Parliament, dragged towards a bonfire this morning by farmers protesting outside the building
Farmers who arrived in Brussels on Thursday insisted their protest would be peaceful, and security forces have so far taken a lenient approach to the protests.
The protests had an immediate impact on Wednesday: The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, announced plans to protect farmers from cheap exports from Ukraine during the war and allow them to use some land that had been left fallow for environmental reasons.
The plans still need to be approved by the bloc's 27 member states and the European Parliament, but they amounted to a sudden and symbolic concession.
“I just want to reassure them that we are doing our utmost to listen to their concerns.” “I think we are dealing with two very important concerns right now,” said European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic.
The French government has abandoned plans to gradually reduce subsidies for agricultural diesel and promised more aid.
But farmers say that's not enough.
The protests across Europe come ahead of European Parliament elections in June, in which recent polls show the far right, for whom farmers represent a growing constituency, will make big gains.
Although the farmers' crisis is not officially on the agenda of the EU summit, it will certainly be discussed, at least on the sidelines.
While all eyes were already on Viktor Orban as the other 26 EU leaders seek to persuade him at the summit to join a plan to provide stable funding for Ukraine, the Hungarian prime minister made it a point overnight Meet farmers.
Rows of tractors are parked in central Brussels during the protests today
“We have to find new leaders who really represent the interests of the people,” his spokesman quoted him as saying, referring to the European Parliament elections.
“The EU Commission should represent the interests of European farmers over those of Ukraine, not the other way around,” he quoted Orban as saying.
In France, where farmers stepped up their protests earlier in the week, the impact of dozens of blockades is starting to be felt, said Eric Hemar, head of a transport and logistics employers' association.
“We conducted a survey among our association members: all transport companies are affected (by the farmers' protests) and have lost about 30% of their revenue in the last 10 days because of our inability to deliver on time or with delays.”' , he told Franceinfo.