EU farmers block roads and borders in protest over prices, red tape

Farmers blocked the Dutch-Belgian border and occupied roads in Greece on Feb 2, while a Polish union announced plans to shut border crossings with Ukraine as European protests over prices and red tape spread.

Protests have erupted in several countries, exposing anger about low prices for produce, rising costs, cheap imports and constraints imposed by the European Union's drive to fight climate change.

While French farmers started lifting blockades after the government made further concessions, Belgian and Dutch farmers blocked motorway border crossings.

A government traffic website showed that blockades on three key motorways remained in place on the evening of Feb 2.

At one roadblock, Dutch pig farmer Johan van Enckevort, 25, warned the European Union and Dutch politicians holding Cabinet formation talks not to ignore farmers' needs.

"We have very nice products here in the EU and we want to continue to make those products. But it has to be done in a fair way, in a decent way and not with so many rules. It just can't go on like this," he said.

The frustration came to a head this week in Brussels, where farmers threw eggs and stones at the European Parliament and set off fireworks, demanding EU leaders at a nearby summit do more.