Nationwide protests by farmers have once again taken place in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The farmers’ union Solidarnosc in Poland called for a day of action on Wednesday, causing traffic jams in many places where farmers blocked roads with their tractors, the PAP news agency reported.

According to the Polish police, demonstrations were expected at 580 locations with a total of up to 70,000 participants.

The protests are directed against the European Union’s so-called Green Deal on climate and environmental protection as well as cheap imports of agricultural goods from Ukraine.

Negotiators from the EU member states and the European Parliament agreed in the early hours of Wednesday to reintroduce tariffs on large quantities of certain agricultural products from Ukraine to support European farmers.

In the Czech Republic, protest organizers said about 1,500 tractors and other agricultural vehicles were expected to be on the roads in the latest actions after months of protests.

The Minister of Agriculture Marek Vyborny called on the participants to block the border crossings to neighbouring countries only symbolically.

The farmers’ organizations’ concrete demands include a reversal of the recent property tax increase and greater support for employment in the countryside.