Fuel protest hope to pressure EU leaders in Brussels

Hundreds of farmers and lorry and taxi drivers blocked roads in Brussels today to push for help in coping with soaring fuel prices.

Convoys of taxis farm tractors and lorries caused traffic havoc on the eve of a summit of EU leaders.

The protesters, echoing recent demonstrations elsewhere in Europe and around the world, say the high fuel prices threaten their livelihoods. They are demanding that EU governments step in with subsidies.

Fuel costs are pushing up prices across Belgium’s economy, forcing shoppers to pay out more for groceries, power and transport – and eating into economic growth.

“It’s been very, very difficult,” said truck driver Paul Delestiene. “Diesel has risen some 40 percent. This has an enormous effect on salaries, and it’s very difficult to buy vehicles, or to keep staff. It’s very, very expensive.”

Barricades went up around EU headquarters and 800 riot police were on standby the day before leaders from the EU’s 28 member nations are to gather in the Belgian capital for a two-day summit.

“The economic situation in the agricultural sector is not good right now, as everyone knows, and that’s why we are headed for Brussels,” said Benoit Clement, a farmer from Wallonia. “This time, the protest is a calm one; the next time, they better watch out if there is no deal” on aid.

A similar protest by Spanish, French and Portuguese fishermen around EU headquarters two weeks ago turned violent, with smashed windows and overturned cars.

In the largest protests, in Spain earlier this month, drivers seriously disrupted supplies to factories and markets for a week.

Prime Minister Yves Leterme told demonstrators their protest was justified.

“People are right to defend what they are doing,” he said after meeting the protesters. “They need an income and at the moment, in the market, the way prices are made, I think we have some problems.”

Mr Leterme said he would push the EU to ensure that its agricultural sector can produce enough for Europeans to ensure affordable prices. He offered protesting farmers a plan that would let them spread out their annual farm tax payments.

EU officials have acknowledged there is little the EU can do to intervene directly on fuel prices, except to promote longer-term reforms to encourage alternate fuel use and boost food production.

EU leaders and officials have been reluctant to cut sales tax on fuel, as France has suggested, because it could distort market demand.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso cautioned EU governments against short-term handouts to fishermen, farmers, truckers and others suffering the brunt of high fuel costs.

“Immediate steps are justified to help the most hard-pressed households” pay for rising energy prices, he said, but he called it “futile” to give handouts to offset energy price rises that are here to stay.