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

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Published 153d ago

<p>On the Paris-Brussels motorway, angry farmers wrote in huge yellow letters visible from afar: "Ursula, we are here!"</p> <p>It was chalked on the road with equal parts defiance and desperation, warning European Commission Ursula von der Leyen not to ignore farmers&#039; pleas for better prices and less bureaucracy.</p> <p>The European Union is holding a summit on Thursday - and von der Leyen, or any other EU leader in attendance, will be looking out their windows at the crowd of farmers protesting in the street.</p> <p>Hundreds of tractors will gather in Luxembourg Square in the Belgian capital on Thursday to call on European leaders to put an end to free trade agreements between the European Union and third countries.</p> <p>They want a review of agreements such as Mercosur, for imports to be subject to the same rules as European agricultural products, and for the "costly" bureaucracy of agricultural and environmental regulations to be made more flexible and simplified.</p> <p>On Wednesday evening, the first tractors had already begun to pull up around the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels, and from early morning the caravan&#039;s horns could also be heard near the European Commission&#039;s main building, opposite the Council, where European leaders are meeting.</p> <div class="widget widget--type-image widget--size-fullwidth widget--animation-fade-in widget--align-center" data-ratio="0.6669921875"> <div class="widget__wrapper"> <div class="widget__ratio widget__ratio--auto"> <div class="widget__contents"> <figure class="widget__figure"> Source