The outlines of the European Union’s agreement with Mercosur, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, were agreed in 2019. Some European Union countries, including France, are opposed to it, fearing that it would affect their agricultural sectors.
A decision to be confirmed
“Poland will not support this agreement, this is the resolution we want to adopt within the government” which is due to meet next Tuesday, November 26, declared Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, Minister of Defense and president of the Peasant Party. , member of the ruling coalition.
Also on Friday, the Polish Minister of Agriculture reiterated his opposition to this agreement in Warsaw during a meeting with his French counterpart. “We don’t think this will be a position [gouvernementale] other than negative,” declared Polish Minister of Agriculture Czeslaw Siekierski after the talks in Warsaw.
Farmers are mobilizing
Polish farmers began blocking an important border crossing with Ukraine on Saturday, November 23, 2024, to protest against government policy and denounce the European Union’s agreement with the Mercosur countries.
At the Medyka border crossing (south-east), around thirty protesters are preventing truck traffic entering Poland. One truck per hour is allowed to leave Poland for Ukraine. The blockage does not apply to cars, buses, humanitarian and military transport.
Protesters criticize the government for not keeping its promises on taxes for farmers. “We are waiting for the minister to come and discuss with us tomorrow. For the moment we do not want to expand our protest,” declared Roman Kondrow, who heads the organization “The Duped Campaign”, present on site.
“As a sign of solidarity with Western farmers, we also oppose the signing of the agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur countries,” he added. This agreement will destroy European agriculture. They do not respect the same standards as us,” he said, adding that “the same situation concerns imports of Ukrainian agricultural products.”
This blockade takes place a year after the first border blockades by Polish farmers protesting against the arrival of Ukrainian foodstuffs in their country. These imports were liberalized in 2022 by Brussels, which led to disruptions in the agricultural and food market in Poland and other countries in the region.
France seeks support
French Minister Annie Genevard, for her part, underlined that national markets and the European market were “increasingly competing with production from outside the European Union and [que] we had to protect Europe’s food sovereignty.”
“It’s about our power,” she said. France hopes to rally other European countries to achieve a blocking minority within the Council of the European Union, which brings together the 27, and whose agreement is necessary once the negotiations are completed.
The European Commission is still negotiating this agreement, on behalf of the 27, but does not hide its intention to reach a conclusion before the end of the year.
AFP
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