HOLIC, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Farmers from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and elsewhere staged protests along Czech borders on Thursday, blocking some crossings as they demanded less bureaucracy and changes to European Union policies.

Farmers across Europe have been stepping up protests this year, including in Poland, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, complaining of low prices and high costs, cheap imports and constraints from the EU's Green Deal climate change initiative.

Farmers blocked the Hodonin-Holic crossing on the southern Czech border with Slovakia for more than an hour as hundreds of tractors lined the highway.

Protesters, including some from Hungary who had travelled by bus, waved national flags and held signs saying "Stop bureaucracy" and "Stop Ukrainian grain".

Vladimir Chovan, a 60-year-old Slovak farmer, said the sector faced "a hundred million problems" harming its competitiveness.

"The biggest problem is bureaucracy," he told Reuters.

Czech and Polish farmers also partially blocked a crossing in the northeast corner of the Czech Republic, where dozens of tractors were parked along the road, Czech news agency CTK reported.

A crossing into Reitzenhain, Germany along the northwestern part of the Czech border was briefly blocked, according to CTK.

The Czech Agrarian Chamber said 3,000 tractors were taking part in protests around the Czech Republic. It said farmers from Hungary, Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia had joined Thursday's protests alongside their Czech and Slovak colleagues.

Photo from Reuters