Brussels - Protests at the soaring cost of fuel swept across
Europe on Friday as fishermen and transport workers demonstrated in
cities from Belgium to Bulgaria.
'The majority of the coastline's ability to attract people comes
from the fishing industry. We demand that the government does
something,' Belgian fishermen's union representative Ivan Victor said
at a protest outside the headquarters of the European Union in
Brussels.
The Belgian protest brought fishermen from the ports of Zeebrugge
and Ostend to the EU's heart, waving 10,000-candlepower distress
flares and banners demanding government support.
In Madrid, thousands of fishermen gathered outside the agriculture
ministry and began handing out free fish to passersby in protest at
the fact that marine fuel prices have risen some 240 per cent since
2004, while fish prices have stayed level.
Fifteen hundred kilometres to the north, in Dublin, Irish
fishermen staged a similar demonstration, handing out fish fillets to
their countrymen in an effort to put pressure on the government.
Also in Ireland, a group representing private owners of bus
companies said it had written to the government, warning that many
firms running school routes would have to shut down if fuel prices
continued rising, RTE reported.
And in Bulgaria, truck drivers across the country launched
protests to demand a reduction in government excise duties on fuel.
The wave of demonstrations comes just three days after British
truck drivers descended on London in a convoy to raise awareness of
their concerns.
And it comes a week after French fishermen launched blockades of
several French ports, demanding immediate government action to
cushion their industry against the price of crude oil.
It is set against a background of soaring world prices for crude
oil, which has jumped to ever-new highs after breaking through the
psychological barrier of 100 dollars per barrel on January 3.
Fuel-intensive industries across Europe are now complaining that
their respective governments, which make a considerable revenue from
the high excise duties they impose on fuels, are profiting at the
expense of the consumer. They demand reductions either in excise
duties or in VAT rates.
But officials say that it would be illegal to cut VAT without the
agreement of the EU's 27 member states, and unwise to reduce excise,
as this could be seen as sending a message to oil producers that they
can raise their prices still further without worrying about losing
customers.
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