European summit, tractors come to the table. Von der Leyen promises by February proposal to reduce burdens

Brussels – A proposal to reduce administrative burdens and lend a hand to Europe’s farmers in revolt. The European Commission is working with the Belgian Presidency at the helm of the EU to put the legislative proposal on the table of governments “in time for the next EU Agriculture Council” scheduled for Feb. 26. This was promised by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the end of the extraordinary European summit that took place today (Feb. 1) in a Brussels that has been the backdrop for protests by farmers and trade associations since dawn this morning.

At the very end of the EU summit proceedings, the German leader met with the umbrella organization of European farmers, COPA COGECA, along with Belgian Prime Minister (and EU rotating president) Alexander De Croo and Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte. Agriculture was not among the topics formally on the agenda of the summit, but it entered it indirectly as farmers and associations from various EU countries have been taking to the streets and occupying them for weeks now. The Commission, also in view of the European elections just around the corner, could no longer ignore them. “Farmers play an essential role in the European economy and society,” the German leader began at a press conference, acknowledging that their work “contributes enormously to our food security and also to our way of life,” as well as ensuring “the sustainable use of natural resources.”

To dampen tempers, only yesterday the European Commission lent its hand to farmers by granting a one-year extension to the derogation on the 4 per cent land set-aside obligations. But it is not enough to quell the protests. Von der Leyen is therefore promising by the end of the month a proposal to reduce the bureaucratic burdens of the CAP, the common agricultural policy, which is worth a third of the EU’s long-term budget of 390 billion euros until 2027.

The protests began this morning at dawn in the square in front of the European Parliament, Place du Luxembourg, while a few hundred meters away in Brussels heads of state and government were meeting in an extraordinary European summit dedicated to breaking the deadlock on the long-term (2021-2027) budget mid-term review. According to local media, some 1,000 tractors were symbolically parked in Brussels’ European district to protest against overly stringent EU policies and rising fuel prices. Also present was Coldiretti, that explained to GEA that it is fighting for “more congruous rules that will allow us to work more stably with lower costs and above all be more competitive at the production level.”

In the morning, protesters also tore down and set fire to one of the five 1871 statues that are in the centre of Luxembourg Square, the one depicting a steelworker, mechanic Beaufort, one of the main collaborators of Belgian railroad pioneer John Cockerill, whose statue is at the centre of the art complex.

The tractors arrived in Brussels after marching in various EU countries, from France to Germany via Poland and parts of Italy, and today in Greece. In the run-up to the European elections in June, many centre-right leaders are riding on the instances and anger of farmers who are demanding from the EU a break from the goals of the Green Deal. Upon his arrival in Brussels last night, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made it known that he had met with farmers protesting the challenges faced by European farmers due to current EU policies and competition from Ukrainian agriculture. In a post on X, he clarified that “the commission should represent the interests of European farmers against those of Ukraine, and not the other way around.”

“We see you and we hear you. But if you want your voice to be heard, let it also be heard in June, when we go to vote in the European elections,” urged Parliamentary President Roberta Metsola, arriving at the Extraordinary Summit, from where she admonished sector representatives in the square. “What I saw today, with the destruction of a historic monument, leads me to call for voting and not destruction.”