Decisive was a shift on Wednesday in Italy's position (which had long threatened to vote against) and new financial concessions that Brussels made to the obstructive European farmers. This led to the failure of French-Polish attempts to block the European decision-making process.
The EU has accelerated the completion of the free trade agreement with the Mercosur countries Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. After more than 25 years of negotiations, the agreement is once again on the table in a decisive week. This would make one of the world’s largest free trade agreements a reality, after decades of negotiation and political struggle.
Central on Wednesday at an extraordinary Agricultural meeting was Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal to give the agricultural sector early access in 2028 to a compensation fund of about 45 billion euros. That money comes from a crisis fund (of over 80 billion) that Von der Leyen wants to include in the new EU multiannual budget (2028 - 2035). The money is thus not new, but is being made available earlier and more purposefully than planned.
France, in particular, has fiercely opposed this in recent years. In a scathing commentary, the authoritative French newspaper Le Monde outlines how President Macron has thereby ended up in an exceptional position within the EU.
According to the newspaper, Macron has allowed French agricultural policy to depend too long on dissatisfied and protesting French farmers. As a result, France became diplomatically isolated at the moment when decisions needed to be enforced within the EU.
Le Monde emphasizes that France, despite intensive efforts, failed to form a blocking minority together with Poland. This eliminated an important leverage point and put the French strategy under pressure. The same applies to the situation in Poland where arguments in national agricultural matters were used in decisions about EU-wide agricultural policy.
Italy played a key role in this phase. While Rome had previously hesitated, the country ultimately let the broader European trade interest be decisive. This shifted the balance of power around the agreement.