Farmers in countries including France, Poland and Greece have staged protests over the issue. Thousands of farmers in Spain staged a second day of tractor demonstrations across the country on Wednesday. Echoing protests across Europe, farmers are demanding changes to EU agricultural policy and action to tackle rising production costs and severe drought.
The protests led to the blocking of several major national roads. Access to the eastern port of Castellon and the south-eastern airport of Jerez were also temporarily cut off. It was also reported that 1,000 tractors were slowly moving towards Barcelona city centre, causing major traffic jams in the Catalan capital.
The protests, involving several thousand people on tractors and other vehicles, have not been supported by Spain’s three main farming organisations, which have called for separate protests in the coming days. Several media reports have linked many of the protests to conservative groups.
Demonstrations are expected to continue over the coming weeks, with a major protest planned in Madrid on 21 February, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pledged in Spain’s parliament on Wednesday to help farmers and take their case to Europe.
The agriculture ministry on Tuesday announced around €270 million in aid for 140,000 farmers to compensate for Spain’s severe drought and problems caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine. Agriculture Minister Luis Planas Puchades met with farmers’ unions on Friday, but failed to persuade them to end the protests.
EU concessions to farmers
There have been other protests in recent days in countries including France, Poland and Greece. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has already made concessions to farmers on environmental and aid rules in recent weeks, and this week decided to shelve plans to halve the use of pesticides and other dangerous products.
Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib of Belgium, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said on Wednesday that agricultural rules “need to be reassessed in the light of current realities”.
European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič said that “resource scarcity, price shocks and an increasingly competitive global market are having a huge impact on the agricultural sector and rural communities”.
“We have seen from the farmers protesting on the streets of Europe that many of them feel trapped, that their needs are not being met. So we have to act,” he added.
Inaction, however, would likely please many of the protesting farmers as it could delay current EU plans for costly bureaucratic changes and the approval of international free trade deals that would bring cheap farm produce to European markets.
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