Photos: Angry farmers descend on Brussels to take protest to EU summit

Brussels/Paris: Columns of tractors lined up in the streets of Brussels early on Thursday to press a summit of European Union leaders to do more to help farmers with taxes, rising costs and cheap imports.

One tractor displayed a banner saying "We don't die silently" as farmers from Belgium and other European countries try to make themselves heard by EU leaders meeting later.

Another banner read: "No farmers, no food." The square in front of the EU Parliament was filled with tractors and farmers set up bonfires and let off firecrackers. A few threw eggs at the building.

Major thoroughfares in Brussels, the heart of the European Union, were blocked by around 1,000 tractors, according to a police estimate.

Security personnel in riot gear stood guard behind barriers at the EU headquarters where the leaders are due to meet.

Farmers say they are not being paid enough, are choked by taxes and green rules and face unfair competition from abroad.

They have already secured several measures, including the bloc's executive Commission proposals to limit farm imports from Ukraine and loosen some environmental regulations on fallow lands.

In France, where farmers have been protesting for weeks, the government has dropped plans to gradually reduce subsidies on agricultural diesel and promised more aid.

But farmers say that is not enough, and protests have spread to countries including Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal (above). The protests across Europe come ahead of European Parliament elections in June in which the far right, for whom farmers represent a growing constituency, is seen making gains.

While the farmers' crisis is not officially on the agenda of the EU summit, it is bound to be discussed, at least on the margins.

In France, where farmers stepped up protests at the start of the week, the impact of dozens of blockades is starting to be felt, said Eric Hemar, the head of a federation of transport and logistics employers.

"We did a poll among our federation members: all transport firms are impacted (by the farmers' protest) and have lost over the past 10 days about 30% of their revenue, because we are not able to deliver on time or with delays," he told franceinfo broadcaster.