Overview
- Brussels offered significant measures to placate farm-sector concerns, including advancing roughly €45 billion from the next CAP budget cycle and temporary relief on fertilizer import charges.
- Sources indicate Italy is now inclined to back the pact, a shift that would give the EU the numbers to authorize signature despite opposition from France, Poland and Hungary.
- Commission documents also outline safeguard mechanisms that could be triggered if Mercosur poultry or beef imports depress EU prices.
- France announced a decree to suspend sales of food imports containing residues of substances banned in the EU, a step that requires European Commission approval within 10 days.
- Farmer protests escalated across Europe, with tractor blockades in Catalonia and actions reported in France and Germany, as unions warn of unfair competition and laxer sanitary standards in Mercosur countries.