Farmers block access to the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium

Belgian farmers blocked access to the port of Zeebrugge, one of Belgium’s main ports, and filled Namur with tractors on Tuesday, another day of protests against falling incomes, environmental legislation and free trade agreements.

It was farmers from West Flanders who blocked access to the port located in the city of Bruges on Tuesday afternoon, and they intend to maintain this situation at least until late Wednesday evening, the Belgian news agency reports.

In Namur, the capital of the French-speaking Wallonia region with a population of about 100,000, about 420 tractors filled the streets on Tuesday, according to French-language public radio broadcaster RTBF.

In the same city, a meeting of farmers’ unions is scheduled for Wednesday morning with the participation of Walloon Minister-President Elio Di Rupo, regional Agriculture Minister Willy Borsus and Environment Minister Celine Tellier.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo receives protesters in Brussels on Tuesday.

On Thursday, the day the city hosts a summit of European Union (EU) leaders, there will also be a demonstration by farmers with tractors, so police in the Belgian capital warned that circulation problems were expected and advised the use of public transport.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, protests in Belgium continued to be accompanied by road blockades in various parts of the country.

In this climate of discontent, the European Commission announced that on Thursday it would approve a temporary lifting of European rules that require some land to be left fallow.

Keeping agricultural land fallow is one of the issues being criticized in ongoing demonstrations in several EU countries.

The French government itself has already demanded a new lifting of the obligation to leave 4% of land fallow.

Also on Wednesday, the Community Executive will extend a customs duty exemption on agri-food imports from Ukraine, a measure adopted in 2022 to support the country facing a Russian invasion but which has sparked complaints among farmers in the United States. like Poland, due to the amount of Ukrainian products that flood its domestic markets.

However, in this new extension, the European Commission is expected to include safeguards that will allow it to respond to certain situations that affect local markets in EU member states.

In the Netherlands, farmers did not join Tuesday’s protests despite the farming sector holding numerous demonstrations in recent years against government plans to close farms to cut nitrogen emissions and protect biodiversity.

These protests led to the creation of the Peasants and Citizens’ Movement (BBB), a party representing the Dutch agricultural sector and which is now a key player in ongoing negotiations to form a coalition government led by far-right candidate Geert Wilders.