Farmers plan a new Baltic Chain

TALLINN – Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian farmers will organize a new Baltic chain, lighting up haystacks at roadsides from Tallinn to the Polish border to protest against the European Union's new common agricultural policy, Aripaev Online reports.

"We will organize a Baltic Chain of fires at the beginning of February, which will start from the Town Hall Square in Tallinn and end at the Lithuanian-Polish border. We will light a haystack on each kilometer of the Baltic Chain route to show that we are not satisfied with the planned new common agricultural policy," said Estonian Farmers' Confederation deputy president Jaan Sorra.

"We also protest against the subsidies being equal for the farmer that grows crops and the ones that grow the so-called euro-hay – who crush the hay and leave it on the field," said Sorra, adding that nearly a quarter of Estonia's common area subsidy recipients ate "euro-hay" growers.

The Baltic agriculture organizations decided  to hold the joint action before the EU Council meeting in Brussels on Feb. 7.