Farmer protests injure police as EU moves to ease environmental rules

Farmers returned to Brussels with their tractors on Tuesday, launching fireworks, lighting fires, spraying hay and dumping manure in protest of EU regulations and falling profits.

One person was arrested for throwing Molotov cocktails at security forces during the protests. Two police officers were injured and transferred to hospital, the Belgian police said in a statement.

Police set up roadblocks and deployed a water cannon to contain the demonstrations and with horns blaring, tractors blockaded the streets of the European Union's headquarters in the Belgian capital.

Tear gas was also deployed against farmers to stop them from breaking through police barriers with tractors. A total of 250 tractors travelled to the Belgian capital to take part, the police said.

Farmers also set fire to large quantities of straw and tyres near EU institution buildings. "Let us live from our work," a sign spray-painted onto the front of a tractor declared.

For weeks, angry farmers have been blockading roads and protesting in front of government offices across Europe and their protests are already having an effect, with a programme to protect environments and habitats in the EU set for a final vote on Monday postponed.

EU agricultural ministers meanwhile met in Brussels to try to appease the farmers' anger with officials signing off on measures to loosen conditions for access to subsidies from the bloc's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The changes give "greater flexibility for farmers" and EU countries to ease their bureaucratic burden but maintain environmental standards, Belgian Agricultural Minister David Clarinval, who is chairing the meeting, said in a statement.

German Agricultural Minister Cem Özdemir warned against lowering the EU's environmental standards in response to the original proposal to revise CAP rules. "What we are losing today must be rebuilt all the more laboriously," he said earlier in March.

Farmers rely on CAP subsidies to stay afloat but payments are conditional on strict environmental protection rules. The majority of the revisions backed by EU countries ease rules for land use and crop rotation.

There is still a lengthy process ahead before the proposed changes can be added to EU law, as the European Parliament needs to approve them. EU member states then give final approval.

The reintroduction of EU tariffs on certain agricultural imports from Ukraine like eggs, poultry, maize and honey in support of the bloc's farmers were also on the agenda.

Last week, negotiators from the EU member states and the European Parliament agreed that tariffs should be reintroduced on large quantities of certain foods from Ukraine to support European farmers.

However, it is unclear whether there is a majority in favour, as for some EU countries the move does not go far enough. Hungary, for example, is calling for tariffs to be imposed on wheat above a certain quantity.

But there are also voices from France and Poland calling for stricter customs rules.

EU tariffs were lifted on Ukrainian agricultural imports in 2022 to support the Ukrainian economy after Russia's full-scale invasion of the country in February of that year.

But farmers in the EU complained about the sharp rise in imports. They say they want protection from unfair competition, as Ukrainian farmers can produce food at lower costs - not least because they don't have to comply with EU regulations.

Hungarian Agriculture Minister István Nagy said on Tuesday that Budapest opposed EU agricultural market access for Ukraine as trade routes in the Black Sea were open again after the Russian blockade. Ukrainian exports should return to their usual markets in the Middle East and Africa, he said.

Germany's Özdemir countered that solidarity with Ukraine extends beyond supplying arms and that imports of Ukrainian agricultural products were not responsible for falling grain prices in Germany.

"Anyone who says that should please back it up with facts and figures," he said. Özdemir criticized full grain storage facilities in Poland, and their market impact, as a failure of government policy attempting to advise farmers on when to sell their produce.