Belgian farmers are raising a stink over what they say are policies by the European Union (EU) aimed at destroying their livelihoods with bureaucratic red tape and foreign competition from countries that don’t share the bloc’s environmental and social standards.Farmers in Brussels on Monday sprayed police with manure, set tires on fire and pelted them with bottles and eggs outside a meeting of EU agriculture ministers.Belgian police said more than 900 tractors had entered the city, and proceeded to the European Council building where they were greeted by officers in riot gear wielding water cannons from behind barriers and barbed wire..Similar scenes played out in Spain, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands and Bulgaria.In online video posted to Twitter (“X”) farmers could be seen dismantling the barriers with their tractors and hurling projectiles while police fired tear gas back at them.Farmers say their jobs are becoming unsustainable, costs are going up, but the prices they receive are staying the same, and they can't deal with cheap imports from places such as Ukraine or trade agreements.Farmers are also upset over taxes on fuel and policies to ban the use of pesticides.It was just one in a series of protests across Europe that saw farmers from across Spain blow steam whistles, ring cowbells and beat drums while in Poland, farmers blocked the road at a border crossing with Germany.France, Spain, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Italy have been hit by months-long protests in as political parties campaign for Europe-wide elections to the EU parliament in June. On Saturday, riot police were called as French president Emmanuel Macron was heckled at the Paris agricultural fair..The 27-nation EU has already been forced to back track on key parts of its so-called ‘Green Deal’ environmental policies, removing a goal to cut farming emissions from its 2040 climate roadmap and dropping changes to its Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) of subsidies and other programs.Farmers are complaining of high costs, low product prices, cheap non-EU imports and strict EU environmental rules.The agriculture ministers reportedly debated a new set of proposals to ease financial pressures, including a reduction in farm inspections and the possibility of exempting small farms from certain environmental standards.
