Pressure on the EU Commission particularly by Polish and other East European farmers has compelled the Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski, to side with farmers’ demands to act against low-price food imports and suspend the Green Deal. In a letter sent Feb. 22, to the chairman of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee Norbert Lins, Commissioner Wojciechowski agreed that the burden on farms caused by excessive climate protection measures is too high. “Stop the imports, stop the Green Deal!” he wrote in his letter. How will the EU’s agriculture ministers who are meeting in Brussels on Feb. 26 respond to that?
According to vilt.be, the most important Walloon farmers’ associations plan to demonstrate again with tractors in Brussels on Feb. 26. They will gather in the morning hours before a summit of European agriculture ministers.
The Belgian EU presidency expects 1,500 tractors. The Walloon farmers’ association Fugea had already announced the demonstration, and three other farmers’ organizations have joined the call, as has Via Campesina, which represents European small and medium-sized farms. On the Flemish side, the Boerenforum is also joining in. Likely, there will also be farmers from elsewhere in Europe participating, as there will be numerous parallel actions in many cities on the occasion of the EU ag ministers session in Brussels.
