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Police officers are sprayed with milk by the European milk farmers during the demonstration in front of the European Parliament building in Brussels yesterday. Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
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Dairy farmers blast European Parliament and riot police with milk

Today the farmers also commemorated the more than 157,000 colleagues who have had to abandon their farms since 2009.

ANGRY DAIRY FARMERS sprayed the European Parliament building and riot police with milk yesterday during a protest in Brussels.

Yesterday hundreds of tractors descended on the Belgian capital for the two day demonsration against falling milk prices in Europe.

Reuters reported that farmers sprayed thousands of litres of fresh milk at the European Parliament building yesterday sending it raining down on police and passers-by. Afterwards they set alight barrels of hay and piles of tyres.

In a statement yesterday, the European Milk Board (EMB) said European milk producers are facing a “dramatic situation”.

“For too long milk prices do not cover the costs of production and thousands of milk producers had to give up already,” it said.

The board said that it hoped the protest would call the attention of policy makers to the milk market and lead to legislative change.

On the second day of demonstrating today the farmers commemorated their more than 157,000 colleagues who have had to abandon their farm since the last major crisis in 2009.

Sieta van Keimpema, Vice-President of the EMB said there is an answer to the closure of farms.

“With the aid of a flexible supply management a further bleeding of the milk market can be prevented,” she said.

Read: Minister ‘disappointed’ over likelihood of super levy fine for milk farmers>

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