Greek farmers concentrate the blockade in the Kulata - Promahonas area

Nadezhda Bocheva

Protesting Greek farmers who have blocked highways and border crossings for over 22 days stopped the traffic again at the checkpoint Kulata - Promahonas yesterday. The movement of trucks through the border check point was impeded again. A line of 90 trucks was formed on Bulgarian territory in the afternoon.
"We held six campaigns to help drivers, and distributed food and water to 700 trucks and cars during the last action. If new lines are formed again, we have the resources for new campaigns, told Klassa Yordanka Stoycheva, Director of the Bulgarian Red Cross Blagoevgrad.
Greek farmers have not said when they intend to end their protests, and the organisers of 12 blockades from Thessaly and Macedonia are determined to remain on the roads with their tractors.
However, there are signals from different sources that the farmers count much on today's meeting with Katerina Batzeli, the Agriculture Minister in Athens. Promahonas will remain blocked until the meeting is over, said Chairman of Alistrati Agricultural Associations, George Kasapoglu.
"Today, at 2 PM, all strike committees have a meeting with Katerina Batzeli and have promised to lift the blockade," said Chairman of the Bulgarian Business Association, Svetlozar Nikolov. He gave the protestors a deadline - Tuesday night, to remove the tractors from the Bulgarian-Greek border. If this does not happen, the association will try again to move the tractors to Greek territory.
Nikolov said further that his organisation will lodge a claim against Greece with the Court in Luxembourg. It is also seeking assistance from business organisations in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania for joint legal actions.