Photos: Farmers clash with police near the European Union headquarters
Al Jazeera
Farmers have clashed with police in Belgium, spraying officers with liquid manure and setting fire to piles of tyres in a fresh show of force as European Union agriculture ministers met in search of ways to address their concerns.
Brussels police said that 900 tractors had entered the city of Brussels, many bearing down on the European Council building where the ministers were meeting.
Smoke drifted through the air near where police in riot gear used water cannons to defend the EU’s headquarters from behind concrete barriers and barbed wire.
The farmers are protesting against red tape and competition from cheap imports from countries where the EU’s relatively high standards do not have to be met. They lined up scores of tractors down main roads leading to the city’s European Quarter, snarling traffic and blocking public transport.
A few tractors forced their way through one barrier, sending officers scurrying.
