Protesting farmers have off-loaded slurry, crashed through police barricades and set piles of tyres on fire in Brussels on Monday morning 26 February.

Hundreds of angry farmers from all over Belgium gathered on the streets of Brussels ahead of a meeting of European agricultural ministers.

Issues

Cheap imports coming in from Ukraine, rising costs, environmental regulation, farm subsidy supports and the price of fuel are among farmers' issues.

Gathering since 1am on Monday morning, protests continued into lunchtime on Monday, with no signs of ease.

Meeting

However, the Irish Farmers Journal understands that during the meeting of ministers, they urged the EU to increase the €60bn funding under the Common Agricultural Policy in order to curtail protests.