Tractors arrive in Brussels as EU agriculture ministers meet

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(26 Feb 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:


ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels, Belgium - 26 February 2024
1. Various of tractors blowing horns and with flashing lights as they arrive on Rue de la Loi, close to the European Council building where EU Agriculture Ministers are meeting
2. Close of tractor with mural in the background reading (English) "The future is Europe"
3. Mid of row of tractors
4. Close of tractor with placard reading (French) "A future for our agriculture"
5. Pan of tractors
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Marieke Van De Vivere, farmer from Ghent area:
"We are here because the (European) Parliament keeps putting us aside, and we are getting ignored and stuff. We want to make a point but nobody listens to us, and they keep saying 'ok, we will talk about it, we will talk about it', but the week after they didn't do anything, the week after they didn't do anything and normally today its they (EU agriculture ministers) come together to speak about it, normally, and that is why we are here."
7. Mid of tractors in street
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Marieke Van De Vivere, farmer from Ghent area:
"We would want them to be reasonable to us, to come with us for a day to work on the field, or with the horses or with the animals to see that it is not very easy to us because of the rules they put on us. That is why we want to talk to them".
9. Various of police in riot gear securing the European Council area
10. Pan of tractors

STORYLINE:
Hundreds of tractors arrived in Brussels Monday and more are on their way as European Union agriculture ministers are meeting to address farmers concerns.

It follows weeks of protests by farmers across the EU.

They are demanding the reversal of some of the most progressive measures in the world to counter climate change and protect biodiversity, arguing that the rules are harming their livelihoods and strangling them with red tape.

And the impact has been stunning.

The farmers' protests, which blocked major roads across Europe, affected the daily lives of people across the 27-nation bloc, costing businesses tens of millions of euros in transportation delays.

The disruption triggered knee jerk reactions from politicians at national and EU level.

They committed to rolling back policies, some of them years in the making, on everything from the use of pesticides to limiting the amount of manure that could be spread on fields.

After hundreds of tractors disrupted the EU summit in Brussels early this month, farmers are back again to disrupt Monday's meeting.

They intend to be there when agriculture ministers discuss an emergency item on the agenda — the simplification of agricultural rules and a decrease in checks at farms that environmentalists fear could amount to a further weakening of standards.

Marieke Van De Vivere, a farmer from Ghent area, said: "We are here because the (European) Parliament is putting us aside, and we are getting ignored and stuff. We want to make a point but nobody listens to us, and they keep saying 'ok, we will talk about it, we will talk about it', but the week after they did not do anything."

Ahead of Monday's farm protest and meeting of agriculture ministers, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, for many the most powerful EU politician, insisted that she “remains fully committed to delivering solutions to ease the pressure currently felt by our hard-working farming women and men.”


As her party has swayed toward putting farmers and industry first, so has she.

AP video by Sylvain Plazy


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