23 February 2024

3 minute learn

Farmers from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and elsewhere staged protests alongside Czech borders on Thursday, blocking some crossings as they demanded much less paperwork and modifications to European Union insurance policies, reported Reuters.

Farmers throughout Europe have been stepping up protests this yr, together with in Poland, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, complaining of low costs and excessive prices, low cost imports and constraints from the EU’s Inexperienced Deal local weather change initiative.

Farmers blocked the Hodonin-Holic crossing on the southern Czech border with Slovakia for greater than an hour as a whole lot of tractors lined the freeway.

Protesters, together with some from Hungary who had travelled by bus, waved nationwide flags and held indicators saying “Cease paperwork” and “Cease Ukrainian grain”.

Vladimir Chovan, a 60-year-old Slovak farmer, mentioned the sector confronted “100 million issues” harming its competitiveness.

“The largest drawback is paperwork,” he instructed Reuters.

Czech and Polish farmers additionally partially blocked a crossing within the northeast nook of the Czech Republic, the place dozens of tractors have been parked alongside the highway, Czech information company CTK reported.

A crossing into Reitzenhain, Germany alongside the northwestern a part of the Czech border was briefly blocked, in accordance with CTK.

The Czech Agrarian Chamber mentioned 3,000 tractors have been collaborating in protests across the Czech Republic. It mentioned farmers from Hungary, Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia had joined Thursday’s protests alongside their Czech and Slovak colleagues.

‘Economics viability’

“The truth that as we speak farmers are protesting all through the European Union is obvious proof that it’s important to handle the redefinition of the phrases of the EU’s Frequent Agricultural Coverage (CAP),” the Chamber mentioned in a joint assertion with different nations’ important farmer organisations.

“The first job of agriculture should stay to make sure meals safety, producing high quality and protected meals, whereas sustaining the financial viability of farmers.”

In Bratislava,farmers led a two-kilometre (1.2 mile) procession of tractors via the Slovak capital.

Ukrainehas urged the European Fee to take sturdy motion after Polish farmers blockaded the nation’s border with Poland on Tuesday.

Central Europe’s farmers are offended over what they name unfair competitors from overseas, notably Ukraine, after an EU choice in 2022 to waive duties on Ukrainian meals imports.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico mentioned on Thursday Slovakia would keep a ban on chosen farm merchandise from Ukraine because the EU takes steps in direction of extending market entry by one other yr.

Farmers have mentioned markets are going through distortions and low costs coming from surpluses amid low cost imports. In addition they are sad with rising paperwork.

“We’re not protesting in opposition to the European Union, we’re protesting in opposition to unfair choices of the European Fee,” Andrej Gajdos, a vice-chairman of the Slovak Agriculture and Meals Chamber (SPPK), instructed protesters on the Czech-Slovak border.

“We’re farmers, we wish to work within the subject… We do not wish to fill out paperwork and sit on the laptop.”