EU farmers join hands, block borders to protest agricultural policies

Brussels: Czech farmers have been driving their tractors and other vehicles to several border crossings to meet their colleagues from neighbouring countries and join forces in their protests against European Union agriculture policies, bureaucracy and overall conditions for their business.

The farmers on Thursday met their colleagues from neighbouring Germany, Poland and Slovakia at a number of border crossings.

Farmers from 10 EU countries, ranging from Central Europe to the Baltics and the Balkans, were participating in the protest, organizers said.

The farmers invited Czech Agriculture Minister Marek Vyborny, his Slovak counterpart Richard Takac, and the representatives of farmers from Poland and Hungary to rally at a Czech-Slovak border crossing known as Hodonin-Holic, which was blocked by hundreds of tractors.

“We don’t protest against the EU, we protest against the wrong decisions by the European Commission,” said Andrej Gajdos from the Slovak Chamber of Agriculture and Food.

Other Czech border points, including into Germany, were set to see protests. The Czech Agrarian Chamber said 3,000 tractors were taking part in protests just in the Czech Republic.

“The fact that today farmers are protesting throughout the European Union is clear evidence that it is essential to address the redefinition of the terms of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP),” the Chamber said in a joint statement with other countries’ main farmer organisations.

“The primary task of agriculture must remain to ensure food security, producing quality and safe food, while maintaining the economic viability of farmers.”
Farmers complain that the 27-nation EU’s environmental policies, such as the Green Deal, which calls for limits on the use of chemicals and on greenhouse gas emissions, limit their business and make their products more expensive than non-EU imports.

The farmers also complain about low prices for their products and say grain and other agricultural products coming from Ukraine and Latin America negatively affect the market.

Slovakia will maintain a ban on selected farm products from Ukraine because they harm Slovak farmers, as the European Union takes steps towards extending market access by another year from June, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday.

“The EU policy in this respect is horrible. No problem that farmers in Slovakia, an EU member state, parish. The main thing is that Ukraine is satisfied,” Fico said in a video post.

He added that Slovak representative voted alongside Polish and Hungarian ambassadors on Wednesday against a European Commission proposal for extending the suspension of quotas and duties on Ukrainian farm produce.