Armored city, roads closed to traffic, tram and bus lines diverted: Brussels is preparing for the return of tractors to the city.
This time the farmers' protest will be concentrated in the European district, a few steps from the Europa Building, where the agriculture ministers of the 27 will meet. It will be an important and very hot protest: in Brussels, on Monday morning, 1500 tractors are expected from from every corner of Belgium, but also from Holland, Germany and France.
And European farmers will have a message, above all, to send to Europe: what the Commission has done so far is not enough.
Ursula von der Leyen, since the beginning of the protests, has chosen a precise line: listen to the cry of the farmers, act where possible, not give up on some about-faces on the Green Deal, one of the main targets of the demonstrations.
It is no coincidence that the package of proposals launched by the Commission last Thursday will land on the Agrifish table with a priority objective: simplifying the rules that farmers are required to respect and halving the controls.
The package also provides a moratorium on sanctions for those who do not comply with European obligations due to environmental disasters.
To all this must be added the stop for the whole of 2024 - already decided by Palazzo Berlaymont - to set aside 4% of the land.
The Commission's ongoing change, supported by most member countries, was not enough.
The anger of farmers continues to cross the continent and finds very fertile ground in Italy.
On Monday, in Brussels, in conjunction with Agrifish, the Confagricoltura assembly will be held, which will define a series of proposals to be forwarded to the EU.
Coldiretti will also return to the Belgian capital, leading a procession that will start from the European Chamber.
"We will be more than three thousand", announced President Ettore Prandini.
If the climate outside the Europa Building will be stormy, the climate does not promise to be very calm at Agrifish either.
In several governments the alarm has now been raised: with just over three months to go, the risk for everyone is not to lose a considerable portion of the electorate.
The Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry Francesco Lollobrigida has announced that he will bring an Italian document to Brussels for the strengthening of the CAP.
In the document, among other things, the Commission will be asked for a suspension of state aid rules for the sector, following the model of what was done in the pandemic era, and a moratorium for the debts of companies in the sector in all member countries.
"The issue of international agreements is also decisive, which must be based on reciprocity criteria to import products subject to the same standards that our farmers and fishermen are obliged to respect", underlined Lollobrigida.
But tractors are putting several governments in difficulty.
Over the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron faced an Agriculture Show seething with anger against him.
In Poland the border with Ukraine is cyclically blocked by protests against the import of Kiev wheat.
The risk is that the still open files of the Green Deal will be overwhelmed.
One above all, the law on the restoration of nature, which the EP Plenary is called to definitively approve this week.
In July the measure split the Ursula majority.
But the text which aims to restore at least 20% of the Union's land and sea surfaces by 2030 now risks being scuppered.
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