Belgian farmers blocked the E42 highway in southern Belgium on Sunday, a mobilization that joins farmers’ protest movements in France, Germany and other EU member states, France Presse and Agerpres reported.

It has become “impossible to earn a decent income” from agricultural activity, said a representative of the protest organizer of the Federation of Young Farmers (FJA). “We demand a reform of the common agricultural policy of the EU, which takes into account the reality on the ground,” he said, emphasizing the problem of competition of some agricultural products from states that are not forced to apply phytosanitary and environmental policies. EU.

“Our end will mean your hunger” is one of the messages on the placards carried by the protesting tractors that blocked the highway.

The European Union “continues to strangle, extort and oppress its farmers”, accuses the Walloon Farmers’ Federation (FWA), a trade union that believes “it is time to put agricultural and agro-economic realities back at the center of European decisions”.

Protests by farmers have become more frequent in EU countries, they are dissatisfied with the restrictions imposed on them by the EU’s environmental policy, the free entry of Ukrainian products into the market and the increase in costs, some of which are the result of the new environmental policy. or certain government decisions, such as increasing excise duty on fuel or removing subsidies.