BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Belgian farmers angry about rising costs, European Union environmental policies and cheap food imports plan to block access roads to the Zeebrugge container port from Tuesday, the port said, confirming a report from financial daily De Tijd.
The protesters plan to bar access to the North Sea port, the country’s second-largest, for at least 36 hours from 1400 CET (1300 GMT), the paper reported, citing organisers and police.
“Police services have received information about an action at the Zeebrugge port,” a port authority spokesman said. He said it was not clear what the action would entail.
The Belgian protest movement has been boosted by similar action in France, where angry farmers have set up dozens of roadblocks and disrupted traffic around Paris, putting the government under pressure.
Belgian farmers also disrupted traffic during the morning rush hour on Tuesday. One of the blockades was close to the Dutch border on the E19 highway, local media said.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo is set to meet with farmers’ associations on Tuesday.
“It is important that they are listened to”, De Croo told reporters on Tuesday, referring to the challenges farmers face in terms of, among others, sustainability.
He said Belgium, which currently holds the 6-month presidency of the Council of the EU, will discuss a number of European agricultural rules with the European Commission.
The European Commission is set to propose an exemption on Thursday on rules requiring farmers to leave part of their land fallow if they apply for EU subsidies, an EU spokesman said on Tuesday.
The rules on fallow land were part of the grievances that have led to protests by farmers in France, Belgium and elsewhere in recent weeks.
On Monday, Belgian farmers blocked highways in southern Belgium and parked tractors near the EU Parliament in Brussels.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel and Geert De Clercq, Writing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Kate Abnett; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Christina Fincher)
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