L’UE firmerà l’accordo commerciale con il Mercosur il 12 gennaio in Paraguay | Euractiv

The European Commission plans to sign the Mercosur trade agreement on 12 January in Paraguay, two diplomats and one MEP told Euractiv.

EU leaders refused to give Commission President Ursula von der Leyen the mandate to sign the deal in Brazil as planned on Saturday, after France and Italy derailed a European summit by pushing for delays and extra safety nets for farmers.

The agreement has been negotiated since 1999 and was meant to be finalised at this week’s Mercosur summit in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. The postponement capped a frantic week in which the Commission and countries supportive of the trade deal, such as Germany, made frantic strides to appease farmers by pushing through extra safeguard measures.

Instead, the plan is now to sign the deal in Paraguay on 12 January, as first reported by Euractiv’s flagship newsletter Rapporteur.

“We have achieved a breakthrough to pave the way for a successful completion of the Mercosur agreement in January,” von der Leyen told reporters early Friday morning, adding that a “few extra weeks” are needed to resolve outstanding issues with EU member states.

The Commission president said she had agreed to the delay with Mercosur, whose leaders were warning it was now or never.

The French President was more cautious, saying early on Friday he did not know whether the delay would be enough to meet France’s demands.

At the same press conference, European Council President António Costa played down the significance of the delay.

“I think the world doesn’t lose a lot with these three weeks after 26 years,” he said.

A European diplomat said the Commission wants the signing to take place before MEPs return to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 19 January, to avoid a renewed push by lawmakers to challenge the deal at the European Court of Justice.

A vote by EU ambassadors on the safeguards linked to the trade deal – following the agreement reached between MEPs and the Council – that was initially scheduled for Friday afternoon has been postponed to Monday, according to a new agenda.

Politically this is huge.

Demonstrators on tractors opposing the EU-Mercosur agreement massed near the Europa building, where leaders of the 27 EU member states met to discuss amending or postponing the trade deal, while a twin rally converged on Place Luxembourg, just steps away from the European Parliament.

“What we ask is to be able to live off our work, and we are against Mercosur because if we import meat, products from abroad where they don’t respect the same rules, it’s not normal,” one farmer told Euronews.

“We have a lot of rules to respects and they are not respecting, and yet (the EU) is willing to import more,” he said.

(euronews, 2025)

Gods, pro-deal bots are strong here.

Now we will see how much corporations are stronger than farmers with their protests. If anyone believes that food will remain the same quality, they are in for a ride of their life. Corporations are far stronger at lobbying and getting what they want. Standards will be chipped away or just ignored – EU can’t check it all.

Add to this animal welfare standards that are far below what Europe requires. Different rules, different ethics, cheaper meat produced in ways that would be illegal here. Calling that “competition” is immoral/hypocritical. And when we become dependent on them, one blocked trade route away from starving, we will start to miss subsidized European agriculture.

As as normal person you get nothing out of this deal except possibility of enjoying far less quality of food.

I really don’t care about protecting farmers but I do care about food standards, from both within and outside the EU. I care about pesticides being used and the treatment of animals. These are the areas that need focus and they focus only on self-interest for groups who can vote.

Sacrificing the food industry for a dying ICE business, way to go, fellow Europeans

Paris is gonna drown in cow shit

We are going to sacrifice one of our last productive activities, agriculture, for a few short term savings that will benefit a handful of major capitalist players.
This really is the end of Europe.

Will we be testing the imports on our side to ensure they meet European standards?

I’ll copy paste an older comment in another thread for your information (and add some additional info at the end).

France is the biggest EU agricultural producer in terms of value, followed by DE, IT, ES and PL. In terms of arable land France also takes the lead in front of ES and DE. However, e.g. in terms of workers employed, RO and PL are the biggest. So, all these countries have a huge stake when it comes to agriculture, incl. DE. PL is also quite critical of Mercosur.

Sources:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Agri-environmental_indicator_-_cropping_patterns

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/02/13/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-eu-agriculture-sector

Now to Mercosur:
The EU produces around 6.5 million tons of bovine meat per year. Again, FR takes the lead before DE and IT. Interestingly, Ireland has the largest number of farms.
With the Mercosur agreement the import quota for bovine meat products (fresh, chilled, frozen) will be step-by-step increased to 99000 tons per year after 5 years. That’s ~1.5% of the EU domestic production.
The biggest meat importers of the EU are actually DE and IT. There are a number of safeguard clauses in the agreement in the event of a significant price decrease in the EU of specific meat products and im case of trade disputes.

Sources:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_BRI(2022)733676

https://essfeed.com/top-10-largest-meat-importing-countries-volumes-and-types-of-meat/

An often overlooked fact is that with the free trade agreements so far, exports of EU food products actually increased. The agreements with Canada and Japan signed ~a decade ago also drew much anger from the farmers. But exports particularly of porc, dairy, wine and processed food products increased significantly. So EU agriculture even stands to gain as a whole. But you know, who’s looking at the numbers? 🤷‍♂️ Sure, Mercosur is a huge agri-food exporter itself, but I don’t see why high quality EU foodstuff shouldn’t sell there either. The EU food processing industry is excellent.

Sources:
https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/international/agricultural-trade/trade-and-international-policy-analysis/agri-food-trade-studies_en

https://www.ceps.eu/the-eus-agri-food-sector-is-a-global-success-story-and-thats-why-we-need-a-new-narrative-for-the-cap/

In conclusion, this debate is more about emotions than facts unfortunately. Btw I’m Austrian and our government was until recently also a staunch opponent – due to the farmers. There was a calculation that the additional meat imports to AT due to Mercosur would amount to ~3 Schnitzels per year per person. Funny way to look at it, but it shows the minuscule impact.

On the other hand, we stand to gain a lot in terms of industrial exports (e.g. one of the largest export article to Mercosur is agricultural machinery) as well as influence in the region – and potentially even agricultural exports!

Finally, a personal remark: the EU isn’t what it thinks it is. Unfortunately we’re not the big powerhouse everyone is looking up to and wants to emulate, as much as we like to believe it. If we don’t find an agreement with Latin America, others will. But the terms they agree on will almost certainly not be to our liking. Also, who wants to trade with someone, who after 25 years of negotiations decided to quit, at the whims of one very small but very loud group of people? Whatever credibility the EU has left for future agreements (India, Indonesia etc) will be definitely gone. In my opinion, industrial workers should protest in favour of better export opportunities for their industries. Why are these jobs and livelihoods less important?

TLDR: Mercosur will provide 1.5% of beef in EU after transitional phase of 5 years. EU food exports actually increased thanks to other free trade agreements (farmers were initially against them). Debate unfortunately very emotional

I hope EU will continue to trade free with the world and lets the MAGA-US eat its own shit until they elect a decent president again.

Pathetic protectionism… learn to be competitive in the world.

What more concessions did Italy and France obtain?

Nice.

Is there someone who actually knows what is in this Mercosur deal and what are the points from the farmers that they dont agree with?

I am curious if the farmers actually have some good points or they are complaining again for something silly.