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Truckers farmers protest gas prices in brussels { June 18 2008 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iC_NJCZoFy7dwBxkJPK9dahpemaQD91CH370Ehttp://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iC_NJCZoFy7dwBxkJPK9dahpemaQD91CH370E
Belgian truckers, farmers protest high fuel prices
By CONSTANT BRAND
June 18, 2008
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Hundreds of farmers, truckers and taxi drivers blocked roads in and around Brussels on the eve of an EU summit to push leaders for help coping with skyrocketing fuel prices.
Convoys of taxis farm tractors and truckers blocked parts of Brussels' inner ring road Wednesday, wreaking traffic havoc. Police said they expected some 1,000 protesting vehicles in central Brussels. Farmers were also handing out free vegetables and meat at a downtown square.
The protesters — echoing recent demonstrations elsewhere in Europe and around the world — argue that the high fuel prices threaten their livelihoods. They are demanding that EU governments step in with subsidies to ease the sting of higher prices.
Global oil prices have quadrupled in the past seven years, hitting a new high of $139.89 a barrel during Monday trading. Oil was at $135.18 a barrel on Tuesday.
The high prices are pushing up costs 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 from the UPTR truckers union. "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 some 800 riot police were on standby the day before leaders from the EU's 27 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.
The convoys were expected to vacate the city center during the late afternoon rush hour, police said.
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, truck 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 told The Associated Press. "They need an income and at the moment, in the market, the way prices are made, I think we have some problems."
But EU officials say there is little the bloc 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.
Barroso said the most "appropriate" response is for governments to initiate long-term reform in ailing sectors as fisheries, low taxes on products, and services that save energy, and "targeted" and temporary measures for the poor.
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Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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