The Belgian port of Zeebrugge was blockaded on Tuesday, causing gridlock on surrounding roads as a wave of farmer protests spread across Europe.
Authorities at the North Sea port, one of the biggest in Europe, said all access roads were blocked by 5pm (1600 GMT) on Tuesday, in a demonstration that will hit commercial trade, including imports and exports of food to and from the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia.
“Every single road into and out of the port is blocked. No trucks can get in, cars are being let in and police and the harbour master are trying to find a safe way for these trucks to wait on the side of the road,” said a spokesperson for the port authority for Antwerp-Zeebrugge.
Farmers plan to block the port until midnight on Wednesday in a protest over the prices they receive for food, blamed on cheap imports, and the impact of EU environmental policies. Tractors bearing slogans such as “Minister for a while, farmer for life” and “Do you like bread, meat or fries? You won’t get them without farmers” reflected the anger many farmers say they feel about what they claim is a lack of understanding among politicians about the precariousness of their positions.
Farmers said the port was targeted because they felt it received economic support at the expense of farmers.
The Algemeen Boerensyndicaat (ABS, General Farmers Syndicate) union has called on its members to join the protest, threatening further chaos in Belgium just as EU leaders descend on the capital to discuss aid to Ukraine.
“The farmers are desperate, really desperate. We’ve warned the government for years that this would happen,” said the ABS policy officer, Mark Wulfrancke.
“We want respect from our government, the European government. The only way to show that respect is to make a policy that is farmer friendly, food friendly. We need a correct price,” he said.
The action in Zeebrugge marked an intensification of protests that have been taking place for days in Belgium.
Elsewhere in Europe, French farmers encircled Paris for a second day on Tuesday in a standoff with the government and, in Italy, farmers staged protests outside Milan and near Rome.
On the A1 motorway at Orte, north of Rome, disruptions were reported as farmers protested over plans to end tax subsidies on agricultural diesel.
Near Melegnano outside Milan, dozens of farmers held a protest. “We are ready to block everything betrayed by Europe,” declared one placard.
A Spanish farmers’ association said on Tuesday it would join the protests and take to the streets to oppose strict European regulations.
“Mobilisations will take place as soon as possible,” Pedro Barato, the president of Asaja, a Spanish association representing about 200,000 farmers and cattle breeders, said in a radio interview. “The actions will not be very different from what is happening in other EU countries.”
In Belgium, 400 farmers have started a week of protests near Antwerp, with organisers citing the EU’s new nature restoration laws and rules over reforestation as the target of their action.
The Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, tried to address their concerns by saying the agricultural sector is “the backbone of our society and an essential part of our economy which absolutely has a future in our country and the European Union”.
Although the protests have captured public attention across Europe, they are not on the agenda for the EU leaders’ summit on Thursday, sources have confirmed.
However, it appears there may be a concession from Brussels with suggestions that a new rule requiring farmers to set aside 4% of land in 2024 for fallow use or for hedgerows or other agriculture that can support biodiversity could be postponed.
To safeguard European food supplies after the war in Ukraine, the European Commission had granted an exception to mandatory set-aside for the past two years, but that expired at the end of last year. France and a dozen other member states have been campaigning since the autumn to at least partially extend that exception, or to build in more flexibility.
