(1 Feb 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussles - 1 February 2024
1. Various of protesters, fire, smoke, police and media near the European Union
STORYLINE:
Farmers lit fires outside the European Parliament building in Brussels on Thursday as a part of ongoing protests over excessive costs, rules and bureaucracy.
The complaints were set to be heard by EU leaders at a summit later in the day, in a venue separate from where the protest was taking place.
Demonstrators lit hay on fire, as firefighters attempted to douse the flames.
It came after farmers had entered the Belgian capital riding heavy tractors in the early hours of the morning - the culmination of weeks of protests around the bloc.
Even if the EU summit was supposed to be laser-focused on providing Ukraine financial aid for its war against invading Russia, the farmers were likely to squeeze their plight onto the informal agenda of the 27 leaders too.
Most of the protesters have been young and family farmers feeling ever-more squeezed by anything from higher energy prices, cheaper foreign competition that does not have to abide by strict EU rules, inflation and climate change that either withered, flooded or burned crops.
Similar protests have been held across the EU for most of the week. Farmers blocked more traffic arteries across Belgium, France and Italy on Wednesday, as they sought to disrupt trade at major ports and other economic lifelines.
Farmers coming to Brussels on Thursday have been insisting their protest will be peaceful and security forces have handled the protests lightly so far.
The protests had an immediate impact on Wednesday — the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, announced plans to shield farmers from cheap exports from Ukraine during wartime and allow farmers to use some land that had been forced to lie fallow for environmental reasons.
The plans still need to be approved by the bloc’s 27 member states and the European Parliament, but they amounted to a sudden and symbolic concession.
AP video by Sylvain Plazy
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