Farmers and Irish Farmers Association (IFA) members along with their tractors and machinery are going to hold a series of nationwide demonstrations this evening in solidarity with protesting EU farmers.
Protests will take place in every county following a decision by IFA National Council.
The demonstrations, led by the IFA, are in support of farmers in France, Germany, Belgium and other countries who have been protesting about over-regulation, onerous bureaucracy and income pressure.
IFA President Francie Gorman said Irish farmers are just as frustrated as their European counterparts.
“They are just as frustrated by what is happening as farmers in other countries,” he said.
“They feel they are being regulated out of business by Brussels bureaucrats and Department of Agriculture officials who are far removed from the reality of day-to-day farming.”
Farmers are expected to gather at various locations from 7pm, when the two-hour demonstrations are expected to begin.
“Irish farmers are pro-EU, but there is mounting frustration about the impact of EU policy on European farmers, and its implementation here in Ireland,” Mr Gorman said.
“The general feeling amongst farmers across the EU is that enough is enough.”
The demonstrations follow an event in Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford on Tuesday evening where local IFA members brought 25 brightly lit tractors to a flyover on the N25 Waterford to Cork road.
Some farmers from Belgium and beyond have driven their tractors into Brussels city centre ahead of a rally planned to coincide with today’s leaders’ summit.
The bloc’s executive Commission made proposals to limit farm imports from Ukraine and ease some green regulations.
European farmers step up protests against costs, green rules
The French government sent armoured vehicles to protect a wholesale food market in Paris yesterday in a sign of escalating tensions as farmers blocked highways in France and Belgium.
Spanish and Italian farmers said they were joining the protest movement that has also hit Germany, aiming to press governments to ease environmental rules and shield them from rising costs and cheap imports.
Farmers say they are not paid enough, are choked by taxes and green rules and face unfair competition from abroad.
as part of nationwide protests called by several farmers’ unions
With today’s summit of EU leaders, the bloc’s executive Commission made proposals to limit farm imports from Ukraine and ease some green regulations.
Tractors were seen around the European Parliament, while police cordoned off the Commission and Council buildings.
“We plan – as farmers – to go to Brussels and set up barricades because the (leaders) are meeting,” Belgian farmer Eddy Dewite said on the side of a highway blocked by tractors.
Another Belgian farmer, 26-year-old Luca Mouton, said: “Time is up. (EU leaders must) think of the farmers. Talk to the farmers rather than about the farmers, discuss what is possible. We are open to dialogue.”
“(Farmers’) expectations are huge and beyond what one can imagine,” said Arnaud Rousseau, head of France’s powerful FNSEA union.
“What is happening at the moment stems from the accumulation of rules that at first you accept … until it becomes too much.”
The protests across Europe precede European Parliament elections in June in which the far right, for whom farmers represent a growing constituency, is seen making gains.
