Today in Strasbourg, in front of the European Parliament building, a protest by farmers from across Europe is underway, opposing the EU-Mercosur agreement. – “This is an agreement of unequal trade. Europe is not just a market. Europe is a community of values. And you want to turn it into something built on the principle that we destroy the agricultural sector in order to build other sectors,” said PiS MEP Patryk Jaki in the European Parliament plenary chamber. Przemysław Czarnek, in turn, announced that if the right were to win in Poland in 2027, a “Ukrainian variant” could be applied to goods from Mercosur – closing the borders to agricultural products.
The European Commission signed a trade agreement with Mercosur on Saturday in Asuncion. The deal will facilitate the flow of industrial and agricultural products between the European Union and the bloc of South American countries.
The agreement, which has sparked massive opposition from farmers across Europe, still needs to be ratified by the European Parliament. However, the vote on the matter may take place only in a few months. Everything depends on whether the EP supports a motion to refer the EU-Mercosur agreement to the Court of Justice of the European Union to examine its compatibility with the EU treaties.
Meanwhile, today a huge demonstration by European farmers is taking place in front of the EP building in Strasbourg – ultimately, at least several thousand protesters are expected to take part, including from Poland, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Romania. According to announcements, as many as 1,000 tractors are to appear on the streets of Strasbourg. The demonstration is also attended by the Gazeta Polska Clubs and farmers from the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union of Individual Farmers “Solidarity”. TV Republika reported that French police are blocking protesters’ access to the European Parliament building.
Jaki to EU elites: “You want to unleash hell on European consumers”
A plenary session is underway in the EP, during which the EU-Mercosur agreement was presented, among others, by Polish MEP Patryk Jaki. The politician pointed out that “Europe today stands before a choice: either Nord Stream 3, or another humiliation, either a quick and ad hoc settling of its little interests, or finally long-term and strategic thinking.”
“I remember how in this chamber we warned you about Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, which indeed brought short-term little interests, meaning cheap gas, but in the strategic perspective deprived the continent of its own energy sources, which meant we would pay more for it – and that is exactly what happened. The weakness of Europe, which got rid of its own energy sources, encouraged Russia to attack and to collect the dividend for cheap gas. We are paying for this to this day. In this session, we will be transferring another 90 billion to Ukraine, and there is no end in sight, because we got rid of our own energy. And now you want us to get rid of our own food. A continent without its own farms will sooner or later be doomed to another attack,” he recalled.
The PiS MEP emphasized that “in the Treaties of Rome, as well as among the founding fathers of the European Union, there was always a clear стремление toward self-sufficiency.”
“I do not know why you are giving this up with such contempt. I also do not believe that there are opponents of free trade in this chamber. But there are critics of unfair competition, and there are those who pretend not to see what is happening here. You have imposed the standards of the European Green Deal, plant protection products, and welfare on European farmers – standards that do not exist in Mercosur countries. So how are they supposed to compete fairly? It is roughly the same as if you put two people in a race and tied only one of them’s hands and legs. Have you no shame? Brazil uses 393 pesticides, mostly not permitted in the European Union, including herbicides banned in the EU due to high toxicity, as well as fungicides and others withdrawn in the EU due to risks to women’s health and children’s health,” Jaki addressed the EU elites.
The politician added that “the European Union has for decades banned the use of growth hormones in animal production and restricted the use of antibiotics in livestock farming – none of these standards exist in Mercosur countries.”
“You want to unleash hell on European consumers, all so that you can quickly sell cars. Just as you once wanted to quickly sell gas. And how did that end? I will illustrate it with an example. It is nice to have a great car. But to use it, you first need to have a full stomach, and a healthy stomach – not one stuffed with poison. You also lie about safeguard clauses. You have no way to monitor and verify production on site in Mercosur countries. Even if you sent all European Union officials to Latin America, you would not be able to check even 1 percent of what they produce there. And the safeguard provisions are one-sided. Today, Mercosur countries confirmed that they will not apply them. So why do you keep lying to our farmers?” he asked.
“You must go”
He then presented evidence to support his claims.
“The Brazilian government issued a statement showing that there will be no European inspections for poultry meat and eggs. Brazilian inspections will be recognized as equivalent to European ones, so there will be no our controls there. Why do you not talk about this? You deliberately conceal this information. Finally, this agreement will support Putin. In 2022, we decided that we would not import Russian fertilizers, and they immediately went to Brazil and today will be returning to the European Union. I ask: what is the point of all this? So this is not an agreement of equal trade. This is an agreement of unequal trade. Europe is not just a market. Europe is a community of values. And you want to turn it into something built on the principle that we destroy the agricultural sector in order to build other sectors,” he declared.
In conclusion, Jaki emphasized that great projects do not fall when they lose wars, but when they betray their own societies – “therefore you must go.” PiS announces the Ukrainian variant
At the beginning of January this year, a majority of EU member states expressed consent to sign the agreement with Mercosur; Poland, France, Austria, Ireland, and Hungary were against it. However, the current government failed to maintain a blocking minority, which for years had prevented the EU from launching talks on the agreement with Mercosur countries.
The parliamentary opposition is critical of the actions of Donald Tusk’s government on this matter. What plan does Law and Justice (PiS) have to reverse the effects of the agreement if it were to win the election and take power in 2027? Przemysław Czarnek, a PiS MP, said today on TV Republika that PiS would treat goods from Mercosur similarly to agricultural products from Ukraine during the time of the United Right government.
“Against the will of the EU, using our internal regulations, not looking at threats from Brussels, we closed the border with Ukraine to agricultural products. There is no other way when it comes to Mercosur countries. Talking about hiring 100 additional inspectors is talking about nothing. One hundred inspectors will not be able to control the products that will flood into Poland from South American countries, destabilizing our agriculture, which is as important to us as the automotive industry is to Germans. Without agriculture, we have no food security, and one of the pillars of our economy will be completely shaken. The only way is the one we showed in March 2023 with Ukraine – we close the borders to products from South America, period. We are not interested in Germany’s interests, because in the Mercosur agreement it is Germany’s interests that are being pursued – the automotive industry, without which Germany will not cope, is beginning to fall apart, because they did not develop, did not invest in new technologies, and have some of the most expensive electricity in the world. They had to find new markets, and they found them – in South America,” Czarnek said.
“If someone claims that we are able to control all this food that is supposed to enter here and find food that has too many pesticides or other chemical components banned in the EU – nonsense. We are able to check maybe every twentieth railcar,” he added.