'Ursula, we are here!': European farmers' anger reaches Brussels to protest at EU summit

Hundreds of tractors will gather in Luxembourg Square in the Belgian capital on Thursday.

Transcript

00:00 French farming unions continue to protest the European Union's free trade agreements,

00:06 which they say open the door to unfair overseas competition. French farmers fear Chilean apples,

00:12 Brazilian grains and Canadian beef will flood the European markets and undermine their livelihoods.

00:18 French police made scores of arrests on Wednesday in Paris, Lyon and more.

00:24 Farmers are protesting a range of issues including rising costs to meeting carbon cutting targets,

00:29 fuel prices, inflation, bureaucracy and grain imports from Ukraine.

00:33 Some of the European exports were going through the Red Sea. That also has affected them

00:38 proportionally more than say the US. When you lose things like fuel subsidies or you have

00:42 cuts in fuel subsidies, those are just additional costs that you have to bear. And I think those are

00:48 the sorts of things that do precipitate concerns by farmers and other things because fuel is a big

00:55 component of overall production costs and having to absorb more in terms of those costs.

01:03 Around 50 tractors spent the night near the European Parliament in Brussels in time for

01:10 European Union leaders to gather for an EU summit on Thursday. They are expected to spend the day

01:15 protesting. Spanish farmers are also taking to the streets in protest against strict European

01:24 regulations and lack of government support as unrest continues to spread across Europe.

01:29 The largest farmers groups, Asaja, COAG and EUPA are all heading the protests.

01:52 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has opened the strategic dialogue

01:57 on agriculture following the protests.

02:00 (whooshing)

02:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]