Farmers from across Europe gathered in Brussels

Farmers from across Europe gathered in Brussels on 19 November 2008 to protest plans by EU leaders to intervene in agricultural markets. Hundreds of farmers from Latvia, Poland, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Romania and Hungary staged rallies outside the offices of the European Parliament to voice their dissatisfaction with various European-wide policies that they claim have hurt the agricultural market. Tobacco farmers from several countries organized the rally just outside the Espace Leopold complex of parliament buildings while legislators met to discuss the impact of the global financial crisis on the European agricultural market. There were no reports of any significant disruptions during the protest rallies.