A man holds a tire during a protest of European farmers over price pressures, taxes and green regulation, on the day of an EU Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium February 26, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman
Farmers throughout Europe have opposed the EU’s environmental rules, blaming low retail pricing and unfair competition from outside. The 27-nation EU has already compromised several of its Green Deal environmental measures, deleting a commitment to reduce agriculture emissions from its 2040 climate roadmap. However, farmers are seeking more. They claim that the EU is not listening to their requests for fair income, since they produce food but do not earn a livelihood owing to free trade agreements, deregulation, and prices that are lower than the cost of production.
Protesters in Brussels tossed bottles at police, as over 900 tractors clogged portions of the Belgian city. Farmers from all throughout Spain asked the EU in Madrid to relax restrictions and remove certain modifications to its Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), which includes subsidies and other programs. They are tired of the bureaucracy and prefer to work in the field during the day and deal with paperwork at night.
In Poland, farmers are furious about cheap imports from non-EU. Ukraine has closed the A2 highway at a border crossing with Germany. As Ukraine confronts a Russian invasion, the EU agreed two years ago to remove taxes on its food exports. The EU is looking for a more efficient approach to ensure that Ukrainian agricultural goods reach their usual markets outside the EU. The agricultural ministers also discussed a fresh set of suggestions to alleviate financial strains on European farmers, such as reducing farm inspections and exempting small farms from some environmental rules. They requested the European Commission, the EU’s executive, to offer more ambitious recommendations for reducing red tape.
Cem Ozdemir, German Agriculture Minister, said that the EU must guarantee that farmers can make a fair living if they choose biodiversity and green initiatives. He described present EU agriculture policy as a “bureaucracy monster.” The EU has previously removed a goal to decrease agricultural emissions from its 2040 climate roadmap, repealed a regulation to minimize pesticides, and postponed a target for farmers to leave some land fallow to boost biodiversity.
At the Madrid demonstration, several farmers said that they just wanted to be able to use the same pesticides as colleagues outside the EU whose products are imported into the union. Grievances differ per nation, and not all farmers want for an end to green standards.
