1-4 Tractors Rising: When Protests Work

00:00 Agricultural ministers from across the European Union are meeting in Brussels today to discuss their response to protests by farmers across the EU. There have been demonstrations by farming groups in France, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Spain and in other countries. The protests

00:15 have been triggered by what the farmers say are cheap imports from outside the EU, excessively restrictive environmental rules, and falling incomes. This morning, farmers are gathering in Brussels ahead of that meeting of EU ministers. They use their tractors to

00:30 block the roads. They also appear to have piled up tires near the building which are now on fire. So let's just show you those live shots of those tires. You can see very thick black smoke there, blocking those streets with those fires

00:45 still smoldering. Well, more protests by farmers are planned today across Spain. Let's cross live now to our correspondent Guy Hedgecoe, who is in Madrid and following developments. Guy, welcome to you. So tell us what's planned for there in Spain

01:00 today and what the feeling is amongst those farmers there. Well, there are hundreds of farmers who are converging on Madrid today, many of them driving tractors into the center of the city. At the moment,

01:15 they're still on the outskirts of Madrid, but later in the morning they're going to be driving into the center of Madrid. They're going to stop off first of all at the Agriculture Ministry. Of course, the Agriculture Minister, Luis Planas, is in Brussels meeting with other ministers today and

01:30 then they will move on to the Spanish offices of the European Commission, because many of the grievances of these farmers are aimed at the European Union. And this, of course, is the second such protest in Madrid that we've seen in the

01:45 space of a week by farmers, but there have been protests as well, ongoing protests across the country as well. Yeah, Guy, we're just looking at those pictures from Brussels with those tires on fire.

02:00 With that meeting today of Agriculture ministers, riot police were seen facing off with protesters, very angry. And they've also used water cannon, which is quite unusual, isn't it? The strength of feeling across Europe is really

02:15 strong over this, isn't it? And they do appear to be quite united, these farmers. Yes, they are. And you know, many of these European farmers, they share the same grievances.

02:30 You know, there's a lot of talk about European Union farming regulations being too strict. So what they're pushing for is more flexibility from the European Union, for example, with regard to the

02:45 environmental regulations that are imposed on farmers and that the farmers say they push up costs. Those regulations increase red tape and that makes it very difficult for them just to do their job day-to-day because they're drowning in red tape. The costs are

03:00 pushed up and it makes it difficult for them to make a profit and have time to do their actual job. At the same time, they want tougher controls on products from outside the European Union, which they say are undercutting them because

03:15 they're not subject to the same kinds of controls. And is there a sense that there will be movement from ministers over these issues, do you think? Well, I mean, here in Spain, for example, the Agriculture

03:30 Minister Luis Planas has presented a series of measures to the farmers which he says he's taking to the European Commission today, and he's going to try and push for these changes, for example, with regard to simplifying some of the

03:45 bureaucracy. But those measures don't seem to have impressed Spanish farmers, at least. Now, we have seen a couple of weeks back, we saw some concessions already from Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, when she announced the withdrawal of a plan to

04:00 slash the use of pesticides in the European Union. So there have been some concessions already, but the protests have continued. So I think it's going to take some really strident, concrete measures from the ministers today or

04:15 pushing ahead from today to impress the farmers and diffuse this situation and get them off the streets. Okay, Guy in Madrid, thank you very much. Well, those really dramatic pictures in Brussels showing the scene there with a line of

04:30 riot police. They did deploy water cannon certainly earlier with those, you know, scenes of thick black smoke on the streets there and those lines of tractors that we can just see with farmers there

04:45 in a standoff. So we'll keep an eye on the situation in Brussels as those protests continue, as agriculture ministers from across Europe meet to discuss those grievances by farmers right across the continent. Stay with us

05:00 here on BBC News.