Overview
- MEPs approved reinforced safeguard rules by 431–161, tightening triggers for action on sensitive imports like beef, poultry and sugar to a 5% price fall and a 5% rise in duty‑free volumes.
- France formally asked to postpone this week’s Council decisions and set three conditions for assent: operational safeguard clauses, mirror measures applying EU standards to imports, and strengthened border checks.
- The European Commission maintains its timetable to sign at the Mercosur summit in Foz do Iguaçu, with Germany and Spain backing progress and Italy seen as pivotal for a qualified‑majority approval.
- Farm unions plan a large protest in Brussels on Thursday, with organizers citing up to 10,000 participants, as France also grapples with a dermatose nodulaire contagieuse outbreak affecting cattle herds.
- The pact would expand EU industrial exports such as cars, machinery, wine and spirits, while easing access for South American agricultural goods, a trade‑off that continues to alarm European farming sectors.