Police sealed off parts of the EU district of Brussels yesterday as hundreds of fishermen demonstrated against the soaring price of fuel.
The fishermen occupied one of the district’s main artery roads, setting off flares close to barricades where police lined up in riot gear and gas masks.
“There are a few hundred of them but more are coming,” police spokesman Christian de Coninck said, adding that the demonstration was not authorized.
PHOTO: AFP
Several thousand fishermen from Portugal, Italy, Spain and France were on their way to the Belgian capital to take part in the protest, Ange Natoli, a spokesman for Marseille’s fishing fleet in southern France, said on Tuesday.
Another fishermans’ representative in Port-la-Nouvelle in southern France, Bernard Perez, said between 5,000 and 8,000 people were expected to participate.
French fishermen say they will go bust unless they obtain discounted diesel at 40 euro cents (US$0.62) per liter as opposed to 80 euro cents on the market.
The price of marine diesel has surged by 30 percent in the past four months.
They also want the European Commission to intervene by raising the amount of financial aid that a government may grant to its fisheries sector without attracting the scrutiny of EU internal market regulators.
“We are here because every time we ask our own government ... they tell us it’s Brussels’ fault. And so we have come to Brussels,” French fisherman Alain Rico told Reuters Television.
“It’s a problem that is shared by all European fishermen so we came here united to ask Brussels to help us,” Italian fisherman Umberto Cogisnani said.
Fishermen went on strike in Spain, Portugal and Italy on Friday following more than two weeks of stoppages and blockades in France.
Representatives from Spain, France, Italy and Portugal are to meet in Madrid this week to discuss a proposal for a EU fund to help the fishermen hardest hit by the price rises.
The rapid rise in the price of oil has pushed up the cost of marine diesel by around 30 percent since the beginning of the year, causing trawler owners to warn they face bankruptcy without increased subsidies.
In Spain, home of Europe’s largest national fishing fleet, the main fisheries confederation decided to maintain its indefinite strike and called for urgent talks with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
The head of the Spanish Fisheries Confederation (Cepesca), Javier Garat, warned that within two weeks “the vast majority of Spanish ports would be on strike.”
Fishermen in Portugal said on Tuesday they would extend their strike for at least another day, after meeting with Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Jaime Silva.
Portuguese fishermen’s unions and associations were to meet yesterday afternoon to “analyze a group of measures proposed by the government and decide the movement’s next steps,” said Miguel Cunha, president of the union of industrial fishing shipowners.
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