Europe's fuel blockades tighten

Tankers leave a British refinery at protesters end their blockades

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From Staff and Wire reports

LONDON, England -- With refinery blockades being lifted in Britain, the focus of Europe's fuel protest crisis has shifted to Belgium where hauliers are tightening their petrol station blockades.

Belgian city centres are blockaded and motorways have been brought to a standstill for the fifth day, as the Belgian Government called on protesters not to put lives at risk by obstructing emergency services.

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Germany, France, Poland and the Netherlands were continuing to face problems and other countries were bracing for blockades despite appeals from European leaders for protests to be cancelled.

In Britain, which has seen petrol stations running dry across the country, there was a breakthrough on Thursday with blockades at seven oil refineries called off enabling fuel tankers to conduct deliveries.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has defended his actions in refusing to cut fuel taxes during the week of petrol price blockades that have brought the country to a standstill.

“We cannot, we will not be forced into a change of policy,” he told a news conference in London.

He said giving in to the protesters, “would not just have been irresponsible but the impact on the country’s economic credibility would have been immediate and catastrophic.”

The major blockade at the Stanlow refinery in Cheshire was called off early on Thursday morning. Protest leaders said the action was taken because of concern for public safety.

The picket leader, Brynle Williams, announced the end of the Stanlow protest at 5 a.m. (0400 GMT). "We have backed down. We have won the moral issue." he said.

Soon after, pickets at Grangemouth in Scotland, Cardiff in Wales, Kingsbury in central England, King's Lynn in east Anglia and Avonmouth Docks and Plymouth, both in southwestern England announced they, too, would cease their actions.

"Public opinion would have gone against us had we continued," said Robert Burns, spokesman for Grangemouth protesters.

In Brussels, marathon talks between hauliers' representatives and the government were halted in the early hours of Thursday to allow unions time to examine draft measures aimed at ending the blockades.

But the union responsible for most of the blockades had already walked away from the negotiating table.

The Union of Professional Road Transport (UPTR) -- which has turned many of the capital's main boulevards into pedestrian zones -- was angered by a court ruling that drivers blocking depots and refineries could be forced to pay damages to petroleum producers of up to 500,000 Belgian francs ($10,730) per truck per hour.

TotalfinaElf, the dominant petrol supplier in Belgium, said on Wednesday that blockades of its depots had halted 80 percent of its normal deliveries and local radio stations reported on Thursday that some petrol stations were running dry.

Belgian trucks have brought traffic to a standstill

The public has so far shown no signs of panic buying and Gaetan Van De Wer, secretary general of the Belgian Petroleum Federation, said most stations still had up to 48 hours' supply.

Transport Minister Isabelle Durant called on the truckers not to put lives at risk by obstructing emergency services.

As elsewhere in Europe, truckers are urging the government to cut taxes to compensate for the cost of fuel as oil prices hover near 10-year highs.

In Germany, hundreds of hauliers, farmers and taxi drivers jammed traffic in the northern city of Hanover.

Some 500 trucks, taxis and tractors moved in a slow procession through Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's home town, demanding his centre-left government scrap new fuel duties to ease the pain of high world oil prices.

Earlier, Schroeder warned: "Drop this dangerous game, because it could threaten the growth and employment prospects we currently have."

More protests were expected in Magdeburg and the first refinery blockade had reportedly been established in the northern centre of Linden.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said he would consider the problem in the coming months, but warned that the government was committed to keeping down inflation.

Hauliers there responded with vows to press ahead with a 24-hour strike and protests on Friday.

Poland was facing increasing traffic disruptions with lorries clogging motorways leading into some cities on a go-slow protest and Hungary, Norway and Spain were bracing for major protests expected on Thursday or Friday.

France is the only country so far to have agreed to implement tax cuts to solve the blockades crisis but small-scale action is continuing across the country.

Wildcat blockades have snarled Dutch motorways as truck and taxi drivers joined the protests against high diesel prices that have swept western Europe.

The European Commission is investigating whether the action in The Netherlands and Belgium is breaking European trade laws.

The petrol price row was not likely to abate with Kuwait's oil minister saying on Thursday that fuel prices were likely to rise again in the short-term.

Saud Nasser al-Sabah said: "It is normal from now on for the oil price to continue the trend of rising, especially that winter orders are coming in ... The rise in prices will continue with the increase of demand in winter and prices may stabilise or start to decline in January or February." He also cast doubt on price relief from an approved rise in oil production.

"The capacity of OPEC to increase production is very limited...We have reached our maximum production capacity," he said.

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