The agricultural protests

EU agrees on new agreement after massive protests

After long negotiations and weeks of protests, EU member states have managed to agree on a new agreement regarding food imports from Ukraine, reports Bloomberg.

Under the new compromise, duty-free trade from Ukraine will be extended for another year, while tariffs will be reinstated on some goods. However, this does not apply to the import of wheat despite demands from France, Poland and Hungary.

The original agreement has been criticized for destabilizing the bloc's agricultural markets, and farmers in several European countries have protested what they say creates an unfair competitive situation.

Before the agreement is hammered out, it must receive the green light in the EU Parliament.

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EU ministers are met by fires and tear gas in Brussels

The fact that the agriculture ministers of the EU countries gather in Brussels on Tuesday has not gone unnoticed by Belgian farmers.

A stone's throw from the ministerial meeting, protesters set straw bales and tires on fire and threw firecrackers and eggs at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons, reports Politico. Tractors have also blocked roads into several EU institutions.

The EU has put forward several exceptions to new rules around, for example, fallow, crop rotation and ground cover in order to calm the anger among Europe's farmers. Another issue dealt with at Tuesday's meeting concerns the criticism that trade facilitation for Ukraine has created too much competition.

- It becomes problematic, above all in neighboring countries, when you bring in a lot of products. But the solution to that is not unilateral actions towards Ukraine, but that we jointly look to solve it, says Sweden's Minister of Rural Affairs Peter Kullgren (KD) to TT.