Dairy farmers sprayed thousands of litres of fresh milk at the EU parliament in Brussels in protest at what they say are excessive milk quotas and prices below the cost of production.
Hundreds of farmers from across Europe(Belgium,France,Germany,Poland,Netherlands,Luxembourg) took up position with tractors in a park near the European Commission and at a square in front of the parliament building in the early afternoon on Monday, after blocking traffic along several of Brussels' busiest streets.
They then turned their hoses on parliament, a collection of vast marble, glass and steel buildings on a downtown city square, unleashing torrents of milk, some of it raining down on police and passers-by.
Afterwards, they set alight barrels of hay and a pile of tyres, sending plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky.
They planned to stay put outside parliament until Nov 27,2012 Tuesday afternoon.
The European Milk Board, which co-ordinated the two-day protest, said prices with current quotas were putting small farmers out of business.
In Belgium, for example, the board said the wholesale price for a litre of milk was 0.26 euros, but the cost of producing it is 0.40 euros.
Dairy farmers in Shropshire, England, recently won a price increase to £0.29 (0.36 euros) per litre from a leading processor but reported that the cost of production was still £0.31 (0.38 euros).
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