Farmers’ organisations from Central and Eastern Europe have called on farmers to protest against the European Union’s reforms of its agricultural policy, the Czech Agrarian Chamber announced today, adding that major demonstrations are planned for 22 February.
Farmers have recently been protesting in many European countries in opposition to the EU’s Green Deal for Europe, which aims to achieve climate neutrality for the EU by 2050. Farmers are complaining of rising costs, and what they see as unfair foreign competition.
For the last two days, farmers’ organisations have been in talks over EU policy and its impact on agriculture with European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski, in Otrebusy near Warsaw.
According to the Czech Agrarian Chamber, organisations from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia handed their demands to Commissioner Wojciechowski, including compensation for farmers for meeting the new rules concerning environmental protection, relief from the administrative burden, and clarification of the subsidy system, as well as better regulation of Ukrainian produce entering the EU market.
Farmers’ groups have also called for protest rides to border crossings where farmers will meet their colleagues from other countries.
“Unless the European Commission presents a plan to address these problems in a realistic way, these border crossing actions will be repeated,” wrote the Chamber.
“Only by coordinating our demands and acting together do we have a chance of drawing attention to the desperate situation in which European agriculture currently finds itself, and putting pressure on European and Czech politicians,” the Chamber’s head Jan Dolezal said.
In recent weeks, demonstrators demanding better conditions for farmers have disrupted transport and blocked borders in France, Germany, Poland, Romania, Spain and Portugal, among others. The protests are linked not only to the European Union’s efforts to tackle climate change, but also to the opening of the market to cheap Ukrainian products, which is intended to help Ukrainians facing Russian military aggression.
