Spanish farmers will demonstrate today against the Mercosur agreement in front of the Ministry of Agriculture, in Madrid. This was announced in a joint statement by the Coordinator of Farmers and Ranchers Organizations (COAG) and the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (Asaja), two of the majority agricultural organizations in the sector.
They do it to express their discomfort due to the lack of effective responses to the many problems faced by Spanish farmers and ranchers. The main one, a cause of commotion and indignation in the sector, is the agreement reached by the EU and Mercosur after 25 years of negotiations. Farmers denounce that free trade with Mercosur will create a situation of unfair competition, because European regulations require production conditions that do not apply there.
In this way, they consider that the sector will receive a very hard blow from the approval of this agreement, and they are not willing to allow it. It can still lie down, if the member states manage to gather a blocking group, composed of at least four countries with 36% of the population of the European Union. The positions of several countries such as Germany, Italy and Poland, which are debating whether to support or reject it, may be key to the future of the trade pact.
«Imports of agricultural products from Mercosur, Chile, Morocco, New Zealand…, with prices below our production costs and without complying with the regulations that prevail for community production, seriously impact Spanish and European farmers and cause unaffordable losses. and farm closures”, organizations argue in a joint statement.
«For all this, we demand a change of course in the policies that concern the agricultural sector, with more proactive decisions in defense of a sector that is hitting rock bottom, with income that is insufficient, with a loss of assets that is bleeding and with a generational change that is not enough to maintain activity on our farms and in rural areas,” the statement states.
Regarding the details of the demonstration, the organizers anticipate that on the 11:00 a.m. the first attendees arrive, although they warn that the official event will begin at 12:00h. Around 11:30 a.m., the top officials of Asaja and COAG, Pedro Barato and Miguel Padillawill attend to the media.
The demands of the protesters
The organizations have developed a vindication tablewhere they detail the demands they will make to the government. First of all, rThey completely reject the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, and they ask for the complete suspension of the agreement with Morocco, which is in force. They also demand the recovery of principle of community preference, and the implementation of mirror clauses to match the production conditions to which they are subjected.
Likewise, they are calling for a shock plan before the increase in agricultural production costswhich includes machinery, labor costs or energy. They also consider necessary a plan aid for continental agriculturewhich is in crisis due to low prices and high production costs.
They also demand from Brussels a reform of the CAP, the common agricultural policy of the European Unionwith real simplification and a higher budget. They put the focus in turn on the water crisisand they consider that more investment is needed to guarantee more efficient use of water. Finally, the protesters urge the institutions to suspend the inclusion of the wolf in the Lesprethe list of wild species under special protection regime
With these demands, thousands of farmers will appear at the doors of the department led by Luis Planas. Following the wave of protests that took place since the end of 2023, and culminated in a large tractor rally through the center of Madrid in February 2024, these concentrations are expected to draw the attention of executives and unite the sentiments of thousands of farmers in Europe, which sees its way of life in danger from one day to the next.
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