Betrayal on a plate – EU-Mercosur will destruct Polish agriculture

The European Commission has just launched the process of ratifying the trade agreement with the Mercosur countries, which may be the nail to the coffin for European, including Polish, agriculture. Despite its beautiful assurances of safety and compensation, the paper opens up European markets to a flood of cheaper food produced at lower standards.

On 6 December 2024, the EU reached political agreement with 4 Mercosur founding countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Today, on 3 September 2025, the European Commission has launched a ratification process requiring qualified approval by a majority of associate States and the European Parliament. According to authoritative announcements, the agreement is expected to increase EU yearly exports to Mercosur countries by up to 39%, bringing an additional EUR 49 billion.

The main supporters of the agreement – with Germany and Spain at the head – argue that the agreement is an chance to diversify markets and reduce dependence on China on critical natural materials specified as lithium. European entrepreneurs are expected to save more than EUR 4 billion per year by abolishing duties. Commissioner for Trade Maroš Šefčovič ensures that “agriculture will not pay for another sectors” and the agreement will supply European food producers with “unprecedented access” to the increasing marketplace of 280 million consumers.

However, reality may prove to be completely different. According to the Commission's estimates, a massive inflow of products from Mercosur countries could lead to a fall in beef prices in the EU by 2-2.5% and a decrease in production by 0.5-1%. Under the agreement, the EU will open its marketplace to imports of 99 000 tonnes of beef with 7.5% duty, 180 000 tonnes of duty-free poultry as well as crucial quantities of honey, rice and ethanol.

The Commission ensures that the agreement includes safeguard clauses that can be activated in the event of marketplace disturbances and promises to make a financial reserve of “at least EUR 1 billion” to mitigate possible losses. Šefčovič even mentioned the anticipation of allocating up to EUR 6.3 billion in compensation to farmers. However, experience with earlier support mechanisms, specified as the Brexit Adjustment Reserve, shows that specified funds frequently neglect to scope the affected producers or are paid with a large delay.

Farmers across Europe are not convinced by these promises. Since November 2024 there have been protests against the agreement – first in France, Ireland and Poland, then in Spain, and in February 2025 farmers from the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary joined. The main allegation is unfair competition – while European producers gotta comply with stringent environmental and food safety standards, their South American competitors operate under much softer rules.

Copa Cogeca, the EU's strongest group of farmers' interests, accuses the agreement of utilizing “double standards” – tolerance in imported products of practices that are prohibited in the EU. Greenpeace identifies the agreement as “for large agri-food companies only”, not for tiny and medium-sized farms, which are the backbone of European agriculture.

French farmers inform against “chaos” if the agreement enters into force and the French government powerfully opposes the agreement. besides Polish government is afraid related to the agreement, joining the coalition of States defending the interests of their agricultural producers.

The EU-Mercosur Agreement is part of a broader economical policy that favours large corporations at the expense of local producers. In the light of this agreement, concerns about the future of Europe, including Polish agriculture, seem justified. Beautiful promises of compensation will not change the fact that the agreement can lead to a systematic weakening of European food sovereignty and dependence on imports from distant markets.

Source:

https://www.europeanmovement.ie/just-the-facts-what-is-the-eu-mercosur-...
https://www.eurnews.com/my-europe/2025/01/23/eu-plans-to-shield-farmer...
https://www.eunews.it/en/2025/01/16/sefcovic-reassures-farmers-on-eu-me...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU–Mercosur_Association_Agreement
https://colombiaone.com/2025/09/03/eu-mercosur-trade-deal/