BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Farmers blocked the Dutch-Belgian border and occupied roads in Greece on Friday, while a Polish union announced plans to shut border crossings with Ukraine as European protests over prices and red tape spread. While French farmers started lifting blockades after the government made further concessions, Belgian and Dutch farmers blocked motorway border crossings. A government traffic website showed that blockades on three key motorways remained in place on Friday evening.
Farmers parked tractors at key road crossings on the Belgium-Netherlands border, protesting against too much paperwork and competition from cheap imports.
Farmers threw eggs and stones at the European Parliament on Thursday, starting fires near the building and setting off fireworks amid protests to press a summit of European Union leaders to do more to help them with taxes and rising costs. Major thoroughfares in Brussels, the heart of the European Union, were blocked by around 1,300 tractors, according to a police estimate. Farmers from Italy, Spain and other European countries also took part in the protests.
European farmers took their growing protest over low prices and the threat of competition from South American agri-food importers to Brussels on Thursday, clogging the streets with 1,300 tractors as EU leaders met for a summit.Farmers explained to AFP that was part of their calculation in taking their protest to Brussels.