Farmers create chaos outside an EU summit and wrest some promises of relief

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Farmers lit fires outside the European Parliament building in Brussels on Thursday as a part of ongoing protests over excessive costs, rules and bureaucracy. The complaints were set to be heard by EU leaders at a summit later in the day, in a venue separate from where the protest was taking place. Demonstrators lit hay on fire, as firefighters attempted to douse the flames. The farmers entered the Belgian capital with the rumble of engines, firecrackers and blaring horns. (Feb. 1 - AP Video by Sylvain Plazy)

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People throw stones towards anti riot police during a protest by farmers outside the European Parliament as European leaders meet for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. European Union leaders meet in Brussels for a one day summit to discuss the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, including support for Ukraine. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

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Anti riot police use water to disperse people during a protest by farmers outside the European Parliament as European leaders meet for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. European Union leaders meet in Brussels for a one day summit to discuss the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, including support for Ukraine. The graffiti reads in French: “You cannot make an omelet without burning tires”. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

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A man throws a bottle towards anti riot police during a protest by farmers outside the European Parliament as European leaders meet for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. European Union leaders meet in Brussels for a one day summit to discuss the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, including support for Ukraine. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

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Farmers gather outside the European Parliament for a protest as European leaders meet for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. European Union leaders meet in Brussels for a one day summit to discuss the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, including support for Ukraine. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

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Farmers run their tractors in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Farmers have been protesting in various parts of Italy and Europe against EU agriculture policies. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

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A farmer waves an Italian flag from her tractor in front of the Pirelli skyscraper Lombardy region headquarter, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Farmers have been protesting in various parts of Italy and Europe against EU agriculture policies. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

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A farmer walks past tractors on a blocked highway, Thursday, Feb.1, 2024 in Chilly-Mazarin, south of Paris. Protests have been held across the EU for most of the week and hundreds of angry farmers driving heavy-duty tractors arrived at European Union headquarters, bent on getting their complaints about excessive costs, rules and bureaucracy heard and fixed by EU leaders at a summit Thursday in Brussels, Belgium. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

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Tractors line up on a blocked highway, Thursday, Feb.1, 2024 in Argenteuil, north of Paris. France’s two major farmers unions announced Thursday their decision to suspend protests and lift road blockades across the country, in a dramatic development shortly after the French prime minister unveiled a new set of measures they see as “tangible progress.” Farmers have been protesting for days across the country to denounce low wages, heavy regulation and unfair competition from abroad. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

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People gather next to a burning mattress during a protest by farmers outside the European Parliament as European leaders meet for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. European Union leaders meet in Brussels for a one day summit to discuss the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, including support for Ukraine. The graffiti reads in French: “You cannot make an omelet without burning tires”. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

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Farmers gather with their parked tractors near the highway junction in Melegnano, near Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Farmers have been protesting in various parts of Italy and Europe against EU agriculture policies. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

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Protesting farmers with their tractors take part in a rally outside an agricultural fair in the port city of Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Greek farmers – hit by rising costs and crop damage caused by recent floods and wildfires – are threatening to block highways to press demands for tax relief and higher subsidy payments. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

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Farmers gather with their parked tractors in front of the Pirelli skyscraper Lombardy region headquarter, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Farmers have been protesting in various parts of Italy and Europe against EU agriculture policies. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

By RAF CASERT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Farmers burned bales of hay, threw eggs and firecrackers at police — and wrested some promises of relief from European leaders on Thursday, the culmination of weeks of protests across the continent over excessive red tape and competition from cheap imports.

Eager to reassure a key part of the electorate and end disruptions in several cities, leaders at a European Union summit in Brussels showered the farmers with compliments and compassion — if few concrete proposals. In France, the government did make significant concessions — enough that two major famers’ union promised to suspend the chokehold their tractors have placed on Paris for days.

For weeks, farmers have complained that it’s becoming harder than ever to make a decent living as energy and fertilizer costs surge because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, more and cheaper farm imports enter the bloc, and climate change-fueled droughts, floods or fires destroy crops.

Their protests have snarled traffic in cities, preventing millions of European citizens from getting to work or school, while blockades of ports and major traffic arteries meant flowers wilted in trucks and supermarket shelves were left bare. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán even complained the endless honking of tractors kept him up at night.

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On Thursday, as thick smoke from burning bales of hay and tires hung over parts of the Belgian capital, security forces used water cannons to douse fires and keep a farmer from felling a tree on the steps of the European Parliament. They could not prevent one bronze statue being pulled off its pedestal and scorched. In Greece, farmers rallied outside an agricultural fair, while others drove their tractors into Milan.

But ahead of EU parliamentary elections in June, most leaders at the summit were clearly keen to win over farmers, especially as populist and hard-right politicians have latched on to the their plight in recent weeks.

“Don’t demonize the farmers. Don’t send the army on them. But talk to them,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said.

Leaders welcomed the plan of the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, to shield farmers from cheap imports from Ukraine during wartime and allow farmers to use some land that had been forced to lie fallow for environmental reasons.

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also promised Thursday to prepare by the end of the month new plans to cut reams of bureaucratic rules to make sure farmers can spend more time in their fields, not in their offices. The suggested speed seemed light years faster than some other EU initiatives take.

And in France, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced a new set of measures, including hundreds of millions of euros in aid and tax breaks, and also promised not to ban pesticides in France that are allowed elsewhere in Europe.

In Brussels, many leaders also said they would not approve a trade deal with South American nations that is under consideration unless any imports would meet the same regulatory standards that EU farmers face, a key demand from the sector.

“The priority for us should be implementing existing rules and regulations and not imposing new additional ones on farmers over the next couple of years,” said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, adding to a chorus of soothing words from leaders on the subject.

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Associated Press journalists Sylvain Plazy and Mark Carlson in Brussels and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.