European agriculture ministers were greeted by the blaring of tractor horns as they arrived in Brussels on Monday, February 26. According to Belgian police, farmers with more than 900 tractors had converged on the European capital that morning to express their anger and exert pressure on EU leaders. Most of the farmers came from Belgium, Italy and Spain, but also to a lesser extent from Germany, the Netherlands and France, crisscrossing the city as the EU member states sought a solution to their problems.

Farmers had already invaded the streets of Brussels on February 1 during a meeting of European national leaders. On Monday, however, It was clear that some of them were keen to come to blows, and they clashed with the law enforcement officers deployed en masse across the neighborhood of the EU institutions.

The demonstrators blocked several highways, the Brussels ring road, various tunnels leading into the city and the road to the airport until mid-afternoon, resulting in skirmishes between them and the police. After being pelted with various objects, the police responded with water cannons, which were also used to put out fires set with tires, straw bales, and wooden pallets. The farmers' message was clear: What they've been offered so far has been judged insufficient, and they will continue to demonstrate until they get more.

For weeks, they have been accusing the European Union (EU) of being to blame for many of their problems. In a nutshell, they have denounced an overly bureaucratic Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), trade agreements that put them at a disadvantage, the costs of the European Green Deal, and unfair competition from Ukrainian products, which have been entering the EU internal market duty-free since the start of the war.

With just a few months to go before the European elections – scheduled for June 6-9 – the 27 EU member states, led by France, have worried that this wave of discontent will fuel the far-right vote, which polls indicate has already been rising, and boost the prevailing Eurosceptic mood. In this context, they have urged the European Commission to come up with proposals capable of putting out the looming fire.

Since the end of January, the Commission has announced two sets of measures in response to the farmers' protest movement that has affected much of Europe. After deciding to exempt farmers from compulsory fallow land requirements until June 2025, and shelving a regulation that would have halved the use of pesticides, on February 22 it proposed a new package to be detailed in March.

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