Farmer Protests Spread in Europe Over Costs and EU Red Tape

William Horobin and Milda Seputyte
·2 min read
7

(Bloomberg) -- Farmer protests are spreading across Europe, with workers from countries including France and Poland disrupting transport routes over rising costs and burdensome regulations.

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Areas around France’s southern cities of Bordeaux and Lyon continue to see the country’s worst disruption as tractors and farm vehicles block major highways. Arnaud Rousseau, who leads the FNSEA farming union, said Wednesday that further action is planned in most regions in the coming days.

The protesters’ demands range from more financial support to offset the cost of European Union environmental rules to less regulation of day-to-day operations. They are also struggling with the impact of inflation on energy and fuel prices, as well as competition from cheaper imports.

“Once the fuse is lit, farmers can follow this to the end — there is no sense of retreat,” Rousseau said on France 2 television.

In Poland, farmers plan to block roads in as many as 250 locations to protest EU plans to curb carbon emissions, as well as what organizers have described as uncontrolled food imports from neighboring Ukraine.

Relations between Warsaw and Kyiv soured last year after the previous Polish administration restricted grain imports from Ukraine in response to protests from farmers just months before the Oct. 15 parliamentary election.

Around 200 farmers gathered in central Brussels on Wednesday, saying they can no longer cope with EU regulations and tumbling earnings, according to Le Soir newspaper. More than 1,000 farmers with tractors also began a protest in the center of Vilnius, in Lithuania, and pledged to continue the demonstration until Friday.

The protests follow similar tensions in Germany and the Netherlands over the paring back of subsidies and the approval of European laws to protect the environment. Far-right parties have latched onto such issues and are using them in their messaging ahead of European Parliament elections in June.

France’s new prime minister, Gabriel Attal, and Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau met with Rousseau and other farmer representatives Monday evening to discuss their concerns. President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X on Tuesday that he’s asked them “to be fully mobilized to provide concrete solutions.”

Government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot said Wednesday that a package of measures will be announced in the coming days and that Attal will meet with farmers on the ground shortly.

This can’t come fast enough for Rousseau, who said the FNSEA will unveil a list of around 40 precise demands later in the day.

“People are proud of where they live and what they produce, and that’s what is making them angry,” he said. “Today, our determination is total and we must get results.”

(A previous version of this story corrected the name of the speaker in the last paragraph.)

--With assistance from Piotr Skolimowski, Samy Adghirni and John Follain.

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