Mayo councillor hails 'major victory for farmers' in Mercosur vote

INDEPENDENT Mayo Councillor Patsy O’Brien has described this week’s vote in the European Parliament to refer the controversial Mercosur trade agreement to the European Court of Justice as 'a major victory for farmers' and a piece of genuinely positive news for the Irish agricultural sector.

Councillor O’Brien, who is based in Robeen, has been one of the most vocal local representatives in the west of Ireland opposing the deal, and has spent the past number of years lobbying politicians, farming organisations and European representatives to block or significantly amend the agreement.

The referral, he said, represented 'the first real sign that political pressure is finally being felt in Brussels'.

“This shows that sustained lobbying does work,” stated Councillor O’Brien. “Farmers have been saying from the very beginning that this deal is fundamentally flawed, and now, at last, that message is beginning to cut through at European level.

“Irish farmers deserve a level playing field - and with this agreement, that simply does not exist.”

The Mercosur agreement, signed last weekend between the European Union and the South American bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, would allow for significantly increased imports of beef, poultry and other agricultural products into the EU. Irish farming bodies have long opposed the deal, citing serious concerns around traceability, production standards, animal welfare and the inevitable impact on farm gate prices.

Councillor O’Brien said he had consistently warned that Irish beef producers would be the 'collateral damage' of a deal designed primarily to benefit multinational corporations and industrial-scale farming operations outside Europe.

“The issues of sub-optimal beef entering the European Union, supporting possible deforestation of the Amazon, and the potential removal from the land of indigenous communities mean that the deal is not acceptable,” he said. “We are being asked to compete with systems that simply do not meet the standards we are legally bound to follow. That is not free trade - that is unfair trade.”

On Wednesday, EU lawmakers voted by a narrow margin - 334 in favour, 324 against, with 11 abstentions - to seek a legal opinion from the European Court of Justice on whether the agreement can be provisionally applied before full ratification, and whether it restricts the EU’s ability to set its own environmental and consumer health policies. The court process could delay the deal by up to two years and potentially derail it altogether.

Said Councillor O’Brien: “The referral was the right decision for this trade deal and future trade deals. Before anything is applied, its legality should be tested fully. We cannot allow agreements of this scale to be railroaded through without proper scrutiny, especially when the livelihoods of thousands of family farmers are at stake.”

He was also sharply critical of the performance of Irish representatives in Brussels, suggesting that their influence had been overstated at home.

“There has been a lot of noise and grand speeches for domestic audiences, but very little real impact where it actually matters,” he said. “Motions and press releases don’t stop bad policy. Farmers need action, not optics.”

While a number of Irish MEPs supported the referral, Councillor O’Brien noted 'significant divisions' among Irish members of the European People’s Party, describing the lack of a united front as deeply disappointing.

“At a time like this, Irish representatives should be standing shoulder to shoulder for their own people,” he said. “Instead, we saw mixed messages and political hedging. That weakens our position.”

Opposition to the deal is being led at European level by France, the EU’s largest agricultural producer, amid fears that cheap beef, sugar and poultry imports will undercut domestic farmers. Supporters of the agreement, including Germany and Spain, argue that it is necessary to counter global trade disruption caused by US tariffs and to reduce dependence on China.

Councillor O’Brien dismissed those arguments as 'strategic nonsense built on rural sacrifice'.

“You don’t fix global trade problems by throwing your own farming sector under the bus,” he said. “Irish farmers are not a bargaining chip.”

He recently attended farmer protests in Athlone and said the mood among farmers was one of deep frustration and growing anger.

“They feel betrayed,” he said. “This vote gives them a bit of hope, but the fight is far from over.

“I will continue to lobby at every level to ensure this deal is stopped, or at the very least, fundamentally rewritten. Farmers deserve nothing less.”