Talking to ETV politics show "Esimene stuudio" Thursday in what was in effect a report back from the EU agriculture ministers' meeting he attended in Brussels earlier this week, Minister Kallas noted that the Estonian government is planning to open up a land loan measure via the Rural Development Foundation (Maaelu Edendamise SA), which would allow farmers facing liquidity problems to obtain loans at normal interest rate secured by farmland, Kallas said.

The measure has to vie for attention with all the other challenges facing the coalition, however, the minister added.

"The last few weeks have brought significant upheaval [in government], but I would like to hope that this measure will be opened up soon," Kallas went on.

In any case, it wouldn't be right to say Estonian farmers are doing any better than their European counterparts, the minister noted.

That there are no mass protests and certainly none of a disruptive or violent nature from farmers in Estonia can be put down to the national culture, he added.

Consensus or understanding on an issue are reached by talking things over rather than blocking city streets with tractors, for instance, Kallas said.

"We, too, have a long list of things that [farmers] want us to resolve. In my opinion, we have already enacted some things, some more are in the works, but some others simply cannot be resolved that quickly."

The assessment that the crisis in agriculture in the EU represents the most serious of the past few decades is a fair one, Kallas continued.

"While it cannot be stated that all the thousands of farmers share the same difficulty, in general the situation is challenging. and the reasons for this can be enumerated, be it the rising Euribor, land issues – there are many [factors]," Kallas said.

On one of these, demands to cut bureaucracy, and particularly that associated with the green transition, is appropriate, the minister continued, as are calls to boost subsidies.

The growth of bureaucracy related to the green revolution is particularly objectionable to farmers, Kallas said, and bureaucracy more broadly has needs to be dealt with.

Some of the issues have in fact arisen over the course of time and were not anticipated at the start of the green transition agreement, he noted.

Boosting support, the corollary demand from among the main issues highlighted during the protests, may prove harder.

The current budget does not give too much leeway in meeting these demands in full, while "due to the war in Ukraine, many commodities have come from there yet very little has gone there, which has led to problems in the European internal market."

The arrival of significant quantities of cheaper grain from Ukraine, famous as one of the major breadbaskets in Europe in a broad sense, is one of the major factors which has driven the current protests, particularly from Polish farmers, who have held up the transit of grain at both the relevant borders – ie. Poland's eastern border with Ukraine, and its western frontier with Germany.

The argument runs that, among other things, Ukrainian grain is not subject to the same stringent requirements as EU produce is.

After being in Brussels, Kallas said, it was clear that farmers don't seem to have much patience left, with the sheer accumulation of the problems; in addition to those noted above, an impending abolition of discounts on "red" diesel, ie. diesel for agricultural use only, sometimes known as derv, looms large, and the weather in recent months has not been kind to the sector.

The EU is making concessions, while the proposed changes would be a historically large undertaking for the bloc, Kallas added, adding it is not clear yet how this would impact on the green transition and the stated need to greater sustainability in agriculture.

Nonetheless, the message has reached the upper echelons of the union's institutions, Kallas noted. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in her recent pronouncements seems to be "coming to terms with the real situation. That we can pretend like nothing has changed and move forward with the same steps as before is not now realistic," Kallas said.

Protests in central Brussels have included farmers, many of whom had traveled from other EU member states, burning tires and spraying liquefied manure at the police, and have been accompanied by actions in other regions, particularly in border zones such as those in Poland. Spanish and French farmers have also reportedly blocked the border in Catalunya as part of the widespread protests.

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