(Bloomberg) -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis offered farmers lower power bills for the next 10 years, a bid to address their concerns and avoid massive protests in Athens. 

Demonstrations have been building up across the country, blocking highways and spilling over into several cities. Farmers’ representatives have threatened to drive their tractors into the streets of the capital, as agriculture becomes a key battleground in Europe and beyond.

“We are here to find solutions and we approach this meeting in good faith,” Mitsotakis said at the start of talks with the sector in Athens on Tuesday, urging a compromize as fiscal margins are “limited.”

Mitsotakis’s plan to ease production costs includes lower electricity bills for the next decade as of April, according to his office. Another measure involves the payment of a first tranche of a rebate on fuel tax in March.

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Greek farmers have been demanding tax relief and a renegotiation of the Common Agricultural Policy, the European Union’s subsidy regime. They also say that they have not been fully compensated for last year’s flood damage in the Thessaly region, Greece’s largest agricultural area.

Protesters have recently converged on Paris in tractors and jammed streets in Brussels near EU institutions, with grievances also voiced in countries including Germany, Poland and Italy. Issues include soaring costs, mounting bureaucracy, new EU regulations in its Green Deal and imports diluting their markets.

The Greek government has insisted that it won’t jeopardize the fiscal balance, which markets and investors closely monitor after the nation exited its decade-long debt crisis. Athens has pledged to increase the budget’s primary surplus to 2.1% of economic output this year, from 1.1% in 2023.

In recent weeks, Mitsotakis has announced a number of measures for farmers such as extending for a year a rebate on fuel tax. That move will cost the government €82 million ($89 million). He has also said that initial compensation for those who suffered from natural disasters will be capped at €10,000 instead of a previous €2,000.

--With assistance from Paul Tugwell.

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