Press conference attended by the manager of the press office of the Confederation of Michał Urbaniak and Marek Tucholski on the European Union-Mercosur agreement, 6 December 2024.
Michał Urbaniak:
We're alerting and clearly indicating the problem. Well, the European Union-Mercosur agreement can be signed in a moment, it can be finalised in a moment, because, among another things, this is what matters. Ursuli von der Leyen, who announced the fast signing of this fresh agreement. ...
Von der Leyen is in a hurry to close the negotiations, which lasted 25 years, as France has late announced a clear opposition. France, in which this agreement, the European Union-Mercosur, can hit very hard – and for Poland, this agreement is besides dangerous and, rather frankly, harmful.
On this agreement Polish farmers will lose first of all. But not only farmers, but besides consumers. In short, The agreement concerns that agricultural goods, food from countries specified as Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina or Bolivia, i.e. Mercosur countries, where there are completely different food production standards, should enter the European Union.
This is an agreement analogous to the licence for uncontrolled entry of agri-food goods from Ukraine into the European Union and flooding mainly in this case the Polish market. Here, we don't know which markets will be mostly flooded, most likely all a small bit, you gotta say it to yourself.
The audit published by the European Commission shows that One 3rd of pesticides utilized in Brazil are banned in the European Union for reasons of wellness harm. Brazil cannot warrant hormone-free meat either, which are prohibited in the European Union in view of the possible hazard to human health. And that's the deal Ursula von der Leyen wants us to make.
Such an agreement, which will hit both food safety heavily, due to the fact that the food produced in these Mercosur countries is objectively cheaper than that produced in Europe, but is besides more dangerous to health, so it is simply lower quality. Food produced in Poland, which is healthy, which is safe, okay, can be a small more expensive, but this is besides a substance of another reasons why this food has prices specified as prices of natural materials, electricity prices, and not only due to the fact that it is produced with less, for example, pesticides – due to the fact that it is produced with little pesticides.
This agreement can be treated as creating conditions for unfair competitionand, where countries with completely different conditions and completely different requirements will compete with countries where food is safer and higher quality, where these conditions are different. That's not how markets work. This agreement is anti-European, anti-agricultural for European Union farmers And it will affect us very badly.
To block it, and it is inactive possible at this stage, it is essential to build a coalition of states. A coalition of at least 4 countries, with 35% of the population of the European Union. France, Poland and most likely respective another countries will be willing to block this agreement. But to do so, we request political will and real action, not only to draft resolutions at government meetings, that we are fundamentally against this Mercosur agreement.
It is here that Minister Paszyk, who will be liable for the implementation, should prove himself able to block this at the Council of the European Union. As Minister of Development, he will be liable for this. So let him block it as shortly as possible, due to the fact that if he doesn't do it now, then this deal could be unblockable.
We do not know today, as a substance of fact von der Leyen besides hides this, which mode this agreement will yet take, due to the fact that we must besides bear in head that global trade is the domain of the European Union and not of the associate States – for that is what our rulings have seditiously agreed on erstwhile entering the Union, on the occasion of the Treaty of Lisbon and the subsequent agreements that followed it. So present we have a large problem, we alert, we gotta halt it as shortly as possible. Minister Paszyk can take action, let him prove himself. Thank you.
An agreement between the EU and the Mercosur countries at the conclusion, Ursula von der Leyen in South America announced the swift signing of this agreement.
Von der Leyen is in a hurry to close the 25-year negotiations, due to the fact that France has announced a clear opposition – for which similarly... pic.twitter.com/3JjttJL4Zp
