Brussels: Fires and incidents in the concentration of farmers

Episodes have erupted in between police and those who have blocked the streets around the European Council building held by the 27 EU Agriculture Ministers. Farmers have set fires in the area around the European Council building in Brussels while a war ensued with police forces. Farmers have gathered in Brussels with their tractors protesting large bureaucracy, reinforced environmental measures, cheap imports of agricultural products from third countries and unfair commercial practices. “Let us live by our profession,” he wrote a sign on a huge tractor that blocked a main highway in Brussels. For slow paces on the part of Europe and “reflectives that do not respond to the problems” of farmers said the Minister for Rural Development and Food, Lefteris Avgenakis, pointing out that Greece is determined to move with all its “powers”, so that “all matters that can be corrected in the current CFP 23-27 before the European elections, can be achieved immediately.” In particular, Mr Avgenakis said that he was coming to the Council of Ministers in Brussels:’ Following the initiatives of the Heads of State and of course our Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis last week, we too continue at the level of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers. The meeting of the PPE and the meeting of EUMED, alliances that we are making the most of, has been completed, so that our country’s 19 proposals will be strengthened even more and we will gain more allies. Europe is certainly moving slowly. It is certain that their rhythms and reflexes do not respond to the problems of European farmers. But we as a country are determined to move with all our forces, so that any issues that can be corrected in the current CFP 23-27 before the European elections can be achieved immediately, without any delay. My presence at the Council of Ministers is also moving in this direction. This is how we will go, so we will try through the alliances we have created or maintained and strengthen to achieve what is best for European farmers. In this effort, of course, we will move in tune and for the next CAP which, in about a year’s time, begins a debate and, as it seems, even a little earlier, we do not miss the opportunity to use all the data to achieve the best of Greek and European farmers.”