(BRUSSELS) - Almost 10,000 tobacco and farm workers descended on Brussels Wednesday to protest against plans to cut back their subsidies from the European Union.

The demonstrators, many from Italy, France and Poland, gathered outside the European Council building in the Belgian capital's European quarter, as the EU's 27 farm ministers met inside to discuss the agriculture budget.

"We are all going to work in Denmark," said one banner from Italy, Europe's main tobacco producer, in reference to the European Commission's Danish farm commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel.

The demonstrators want the current subsidy system to continue until 2013, which they consider to be key to the survival of a tobacco sector employing around 100,000 producers and 400,000 seasonal workers in Europe.

The new reform plans, devised in 2004, would de-couple the amount of farm subsidies paid from the quantity of tobacco produced, which in concrete terms would lead to a cut in funds.

"There are 9,800 people who have made the trip to Brussels," said organisers of the protest, which was generally calm and also included farmers from Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Portugal and Spain.

The commission, the EU's executive body, said Tuesday that it would be prepared to help tobacco producers in Europe whose livelihoods are endangered by the cut in subsidies, but made no mention of prolonging the current system.

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