Brussels police fired a water cannon after furious farmers started a bonfire outside the European Parliament while protesting.
Piles of old tyres were set ablaze on Monday in a protest to demand action on issues including cheap supermarket prices, free trade deals and strenuous EU environmental rules.
Riot police fired a water cannon to put out flames.
Farmers also parked more than 100 tractors around the European Union institutions' headquarters, a short distance from the cordoned-off area where ministers were arriving for a meeting to discuss the crisis in the sector.
Riot police fire water cannon after farmers light bonfire outside EU Parliament
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Farmers light tyres ablaze during protest
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Farmers protest in Brussels
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Protester launches empty bottle at police during farmers protest in Brussels
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Morgan Ody, General Coordinator of farming organisation La Via Campesina, said that for most farmers: “It's about income.”
“It's about the fact that we are poor, and that we want to make a decent living.”
Ody, herself a farmer from Brittany, France, called on the EU to set up minimum support prices and exit free trade agreements that enable imports of cheaper foreign produce.
“We are not against climate policies. But we know that in order to do the transition, we need higher prices for products because it costs more to produce in an ecological way,” she added.
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A farmer burns a Russian flag during a protest of European farmers over price pressures, taxes and green regulation, on the day of an EU Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels
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A farmer runs behind tires as he is sprayed by a water cannon during a protest of European farmers
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Riot police in Brussels
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Demands also include ending free trade agreements, which farmers say have led to cheaper imports from countries where producers face less stringent environmental standards than those of the EU.
A stage set up at the protest site on Monday was draped with a sign that said “stop EU Mercosur” - a reference to ongoing negotiations to conclude an EU trade agreement with the Mercosur group of South American countries.
The European Commission has said the conditions that would allow the EU to sign the Mercosur deal have not been met. It has sought stronger assurances on environmental standards in the deal.
Agriculture ministers were set to debate a new set of EU proposals to ease the pressure on farmers - including a reduction in farm inspections and the possibility of exempting small farms from some environmental standards.
Riot police fired a water cannon to put out flames
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Water cannon sprays fire at Brussels protest
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People gather during a protest of European farmers
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“Farmers need to be paid for what they do... There are aspects of the Green Deal demanded of farmers that are not remunerated. That is the core of the problem,” Belgian Agriculture Minister David Clarinval said, referring to EU environmental requirements.
The latest action comes amid weeks of anger and protests from farmers across the bloc.
The EU scrapped a goal to cut farming emissions from its 2040 climate roadmap. It has also withdrawn a law to reduce pesticides and delayed a target for farmers to leave some land fallow to improve biodiversity.
Today’s protest is a marked step-down in scale from the initial protest at the start of February which saw around 1,000 tractors join a blockade of the Belgian capital.
