Belgian farmers start fires outside European parliament

More than 1,000 tractor drivers have brought the European Union quarter of Brussels to a standstill as farmers demonstrate against environmental rules while Europe’s leaders hold a crisis meeting. Protesters lit bonfires, threw eggs at the European parliament and dumped manure to show their anger at EU “green deal” legislation. Scuffles broke out with police next to a barbed-wire security fence. The farmers also toppled a statue of John Cockerill, a 19th-century Belgian-British industrialist who played a role in Belgium’s industrial revolution. They mistook him for a founding figure of the EU. Read the best of our journalism: Subscribe to The Times and The Sunday Times YouTube channel: Find us on Facebook: Find us on Twitter: Find us on Instagram: #farmersprotest #