Mercosur: it’s not free protectionism, it’s meals safety | Opinion | EUROtoday

The official narrative from Brussels presents the settlement with Mercosur as a “historic opportunity” for commerce opening. However, behind the handshakes, there’s a actuality that explains why the European livestock sector is on a battle footing. It isn’t gratuitous protectionism; It is a query of survival, aggressive loyalty and meals safety in seven key factors:

The European market is already flooded with Mercosur meat: they attempt to persuade us that the brand new tariff quotas are crucial to spice up commerce and scale back inflation, however the information inform a unique story. In 2025 alone, as of October, the amount of beef exported by Mercosur to the EU is already equal to that of all the 12 months 2024. This large curiosity reveals that these nations already dominate the European market even with out the preferential benefits that the brand new settlement seeks to grant them. What will stay of our sovereignty when the doorways are thrown large open?

The kind of meat that may profit from this settlement will generate important harm to the European worth chain: The harm won’t come from the entire quantity of meat, however from its kind. The settlement focuses particularly on noble items (loins and tenderloins). The quantity that has been granted with this settlement is roughly equal to the entire manufacturing of those cuts in all the European Union. By flooding the market with the items that generate the best revenue margin, the profitability of all the European channel is totally impacted, making the continuity of our farms unviable, particularly the smaller ones.

The delusion of reciprocity, Minister Planas’ “Palomares”: the Commission’s star promise has been respect for European requirements. However, simply 4 days in the past, a Commission audit of Brazil revealed that the plan to forestall the export of meat with estradiol 17 (a hormone banned within the EU) has been flagrantly breached. This actuality leaves Minister Planas in a really delicate place, who just some weeks in the past got here out to disclaim the entry of meat with hormones into the EU with a confidence that recalled Fraga bathing in Palomares: a staging to calm public opinion whereas the technical report stated the alternative. If they don’t seem to be capable of adjust to a particular hormone, how are you going to consider that they’ll respect the remaining? The listing of variations is lengthy: antibiotic development promoters, GMOs, banned pesticides, lack of traceability, absence of animal welfare requirements or respect for European environmental commitments. The Commission has demonstrated a complete incapability to implement its guidelines exterior our borders and, what’s worse, to have the ability to detect it successfully at customs.

We endanger our meals sovereignty: Beef is simply the tip of the iceberg. This settlement opens the door to different meats that may undergo the identical course of: an insurmountable distinction in manufacturing prices that may undermine European manufacturing. We are handing over our meals provide capability to 3rd nations, accepting the situations and requirements that they need to impose on us sooner or later.

The helplessness of the European client: the European client doesn’t even have the power to decide on. This meat doesn’t often attain the grocery store shelf with its label of origin, however is diluted in collective catering (hospitals, colleges). It is a perverse double sport that firms are additionally coming into into: whereas they suffocate the European trade with limitless certifications, they facilitate the entry of merchandise from third nations understanding that they don’t play by the identical guidelines.

The hamster wheel during which the European livestock farmer is concerned: the Commission’s response to the outbreak within the countryside has been the identical as all the time: packages of public cash to review why manufacturing is reducing, why there is no such thing as a generational change or why small livestock farms in our rural areas are disappearing. It is cynical to attempt to take away the farmer from the hamster wheel whereas it’s the administration itself that has designed the wheel by bureaucratization and unfair competitors.

The process utilized by the Commission may very well be unlawful: Finally, the way in which during which this settlement is being processed is, to say the least, questionable. By ignoring the decision-making energy of the European Parliament, the Commission is strolling a authorized tightrope. A lot of MEPs have already requested the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) to rule on the legality of the process.

European livestock farmers are exhausted. Fed up with inspections that search administrative failure and a mountain of paperwork that solely serves to make them be ok with themselves in Brussels. If the Court of Justice finally ends up ruling that this course of was unlawful, somebody must assume political accountability for this outrage. You can’t play like this with public well being or with the lifestyle of 1000’s of households. It is evident that we don’t play in the identical league; We do not even play the identical sport.