Hundreds of tractors take farmers’ plight to EU summit

Farmers gather for a protest outside the European Parliament (Omar Havana/AP)

Convoys with hundreds of angry farmers driving heavy-duty tractors advanced toward European Union headquarters, bent on having their complaints about excessive costs, rules and bureaucracy heard by EU leaders at a summit on Thursday.

After warming themselves at burning piles of pallets, the farmers mounted their vehicles and entered the Belgian capital to the rumble of engines, fireworks and blaring horns, in the culmination of weeks of protests around the bloc.