Protests Continue in Spain As E.U. Prepares to Meet on Fuel Prices Wednesday, September 20, 2000 Thousands of fishermen and farmers throughout Spain continued to shut down fuel distribution to protest rising fuel costs as the European Union's transport ministers were gathering for a crisis meeting Wednesday.

With oil prices are the highest since the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis, Europe has been crippled by a series of continent-wide protests by truck drivers and farmers demanding tax concessions from their respective governments.

In Spain, almost 200 farmers on tractors and in trucks shut off fuel delivery to the southern and eastern parts of the country when they surrounded three fuel distribution centers early Wednesday. The centers, in Lerida, Malaga, Cordoba, distribute fuel to much of Andalusia and the province of Jaen.

On the Balearic Islands, about 60 fishing boats blockaded the ports of Palma de Mallorca and Alcudia early Wednesday, promising to continue indefinitely.

The blockade comes a day after fishermen ended a five-day block of the port of Barcelona. On Tuesday, fishermen briefly blockaded other ports to stop oil shipments but dispersed after several hours.

In the eastern city of Valencia and the southern city of Huelva Wednesday, about 500 fishermen and supporters shut down roads leading to regional wholesale fish markets and turned away shipments of fish and seafood. Television showed groups of enraged fishermen shouting at and shoving truck drivers trying to deliver produce to the market before dawn.

Talks were continuing Wednesday between the government and a coalition of truckers, farmers and fishermen. Many of the protesting organizations now demand fuel price cuts and refuse to discuss other measures to soften the effects of rising costs.

The protests began early this month in France as prices for gas and diesel fuel soared due to high world prices for oil and a strong U.S. dollar, the currency that world oil sales are priced in. Truckers and farmers blockaded oil refineries and depots, but backed down after the government offered tax concessions.

The protests even spread to Israel, with truckers clogging traffic along the main road linking the ports of Haifa and Ashdod.

E.U. Transport Ministers Convene

Later Wednesday, transport ministers from the European Union were expected to meet in Luxembourg in an attempt to produce a coherent European policy  but many observers suspect the conference to be little more than a public relations exercise.

The European Commissioner in charge of energy and transport policy, Loyola de Palacio, is likely to use the meeting to take a tough stand on countries that risk distorting the EU single market by providing unfair state aid or tax cuts.

De Palacio said on Tuesday she had "serious doubts" about some of the measures taken by national governments to appease fuel protesters and promised to take legal action against countries found to be breaching EU rules.

The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Greece and Germany are among the countries that have taken, or are considering, measures such as tax breaks to help truckers, farmers, fishermen and taxi drivers.

 SkyNews and the AP contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/092000/fuel_protests.sml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 20, 2000