Farmers take part in a protest called by local branches of major farmer unions FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs, blocking the A35 highway with tractors near Strasbourg, eastern France, on Jan 30, 2024, amid nationwide protests called by several farmers unions on pay, tax and regulations. (PHOTO / AFP)

JOSSIGNY / BRUSSELS - French and Belgian farmers angry about rising costs, EU environmental policies and cheap food imports blocked highways and access roads to a major container port on Tuesday as the protests spread across Europe.

In France, farmers, who have been protesting for over two weeks, stepped up their pressure on the government by blocking highways with their tractors near Paris and setting bales of hay ablaze to partly block access to Toulouse airport.

The farmers are desperate, really desperate... 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... 

Mark Wulfrancke, A farmer from Belgium

"Whatever happens, we are determined to go to the end," farmer Jean-Baptiste Bongard said as crowds of farmers huddled together around small fires on a highway in Jossigny, near Paris, blocked by the tractors.

"If the movement needs to last a month, then it will last a month," said Bongard.

In Belgium, where protests have been inspired by those in neighboring France, farmers blocked access roads to the Zeebrugge container port.

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Farmers organizing the protest said they planned to bar access to the North Sea port, the country's second-largest, for at least 36 hours. They targeted it because they said it received economic support at the expense of farmers.

Belgian farmers also blocked a square in central Brussels, saying they would stay put until at least Thursday, when EU leaders meet in the city for a summit.

Spanish farmers said they would join the movement and organize protests in February.

The French protests follow similar action in other European countries, including Germany and Poland, ahead of European Parliament elections in June in which the far right, for whom farmers represent a growing constituency, is seen making gains.

Farmers pose in front of a statue during a demonstration of French and Belgian farmers outside the European Parliament in Brussels, Jan 24, 2024. (PHOTO / AP)

Cheap imports complaint

Farmers say they are not being paid enough, are choked by excessive regulation on environmental protection and face unfair competition from cheap imports.

"The farmers are desperate, really desperate," said Mark Wulfrancke, from Belgium's Algemeen Boerensyndicaat.

Much of the bloc's agricultural rules, hefty subsidies and import rules are decided in Brussels jointly by member states and the European Parliament, alongside the executive European Commission

"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," Wulfrancke told Reuters.

In France, the protests increased in intensity on Monday, leading up to the EU summit, when they hope their action and those of other farmers in Europe will grab the attention of the politicians focused on aid for Ukraine and the bloc's budget.

While the farmers' crisis is not officially on the agenda, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would discuss it with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and government leaders.

Much of the bloc's agricultural rules, hefty subsidies and import rules are decided in Brussels jointly by member states and the European Parliament, alongside the executive European Commission.

"We need to have a European debate," Macron said on Tuesday.

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Wary of protests escalating, the French government has already dropped plans to gradually reduce subsidies on agricultural diesel and promised to ease environmental regulations.

"We've asked (the EU) for very concrete things for our farmers," said Macron, calling in particular to ensure that imported produce meets European standards.

A plastic cow painted with the colors of the EU flag is held up by a strap from a tractor during a demonstration of French and Belgian farmers outside the European Parliament in Brussels, Jan 24, 2024. (PHOTO / AP)

Mercosur trade talks

Imports from Ukraine, on which the EU has waived quotas and duties since Russia's February 2022 military operation, and renewed negotiations to conclude the Mercosur trade deal with South American countries have fanned farmers' discontent about unfair competition in sugar, grain and meat.

Imports from Ukraine, on which the EU has waived quotas and duties since Russia's February 2022 military operation, and renewed negotiations to conclude the Mercosur trade deal with South American countries have fanned farmers' discontent about unfair competition in sugar, grain and meat

France wants "to have clear measures on imports from Ukraine because today we have in volume and quality things that are destabilizing the European market, whether chicken or cereals", Macron said.

The European Commission said on Tuesday that it was continuing to pursue trade talks with the Mercosur bloc, a day after Macron's office said it understood the EU had halted talks.

Brazil's Foreign Trade Secretary Tatiana Prazeres also said on Tuesday that negotiations were ongoing.

But Macron insisted he did not want the agreement as it was currently drafted, due to a lack of guarantees that imported products would have to follow similar rules as European ones.

Several other EU members back the deal, which would be the largest trade agreement for the bloc in terms of tariff reduction and part of the EU strategy of trade diversification following Russia's military operation to Ukraine and a desire to reduce its reliance on China.

"Contrary to common French practice, the EU does not in fact operate by presidential decree," one EU diplomat said.

EU governments and the European Parliament need to approve any trade deal the Commission has reached.

Macron also said he wanted more flexibility on some of the EU's joint agricultural rules, including on fallow land.

There, the European Commission appeared poised to offer some policy changes, by proposing to extend an exemption on rules requiring farmers to leave part of their land fallow if they apply for EU subsidies.

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Farmers must normally meet certain conditions including devoting 4 percent of farmland to "non-productive" areas where nature can recover, though there is already a temporary exemption in response to the Ukraine war and food security concerns.

The 4 percent rule on fallow land was part of the grievances that led to protests in France and elsewhere.

Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau will be in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss France's farming demands, his office said.