Incidents occur during the gathering of farmers with their tractors in the heart of Brusselswhen police officers tried to stop them.

The ministers of agriculture of the 27 EU countries are meeting today in Brussels.

Around 300 tractors are lined up in the city centre and the Rue de la Loi is blocked by peasants.

Belgian police had erected barricades and barbed wire around the headquarters of the European Union.

The angry farmers drove their tractors towards the barricades in a show of force.

Police officers tried to block the farmers’ passage with water cannonshowever they broke through the railings and approached the palace, where the Ministers of Agriculture will meet.

brussels farmers

Less than a month after the “historic”, as it was described, rural mobilization in the Belgian capital on February 1, when over 1,300 tractors flooded the streets of the European quartertoday farmers are returning to express their anger at the lack of response from the European authorities.

As reported by the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, today’s demonstration will involve agricultural unions from Wallonia and Flanders (southern and northern Belgium), as well as farmers from France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Luxembourg.

Among the main demands of the farmers whoas they themselves say, have not yet been heard, are: fair incomes, reduction of administrative burdens, end of free trade agreements and increase of the budget for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

According to representatives of Belgian agricultural unions, hundreds of tractors are expected to flood Brussels today as well, however, they are not expected to exceed the participation of February 1st.

The Belgian authoritieson their part, warn residents of the capital of “major traffic problems” and they urge them not to use a car, to prefer the metro for their movements