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Takáč: The deal with Mercosur is advantageous for the EU and Slovakia, farmers have concerns

by AI | 09.Dec 2024 | Europe in brief AI

The head of the Slovak agriculture sector talked about the EU-Mercosur agreement, its benefits, and farmers’ concerns.

Slovak Minister of Agriculture Richard Takáč spoke in Brussels about the importance of the agreement with Mercosur. Photo: TASR

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Brussels/Bratislava – Slovakia can benefit from the European Union’s (EU) trade agreement with the Mercosur countries, but it also has concerns regarding the import of agricultural commodities. This was stated on Monday evening in Brussels by the Minister of Agriculture Richard Takáč (Smer-SD) after the conclusion of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting. This is reported by the TASR correspondent.

Takáč recalled that during his stay in Brussels, he also used the opportunity for a bilateral meeting with representatives of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture to continue the ongoing negotiations on the possible transfer of mandatory payments from 2024 to the next year.

He warned that the previous governments of Slovakia did not draw funds through project calls in the second pillar (direct payments), and therefore Slovakia is at risk of losing a significant portion of the allocated EU funds this year or next year.

“I’m glad that the European Commission recognized that the steps we took led to our sharply increased drawing of financial resources this year compared to previous ones,” he added.

He emphasized that in the second half of January 2025, his department will present reports showing the reality of EU fund drawing in the agro-sector. He also admitted that it was not possible to achieve results that would lead to the complete exhaustion of allocated resources for 2024 through the EU, and therefore he is looking for other possibilities with the European Commission, for example, so that the funds that are supposed to be lost can be transferred from this year to the next. He added that Slovakia is not the only member state addressing these issues with the EU executive.

“This means that what we do not exhaust this year will be transferred to the next, that the European Commission will acknowledge it, and then we have an obligation to exhaust these funds. We already have mechanisms set up that will be more flexible in this regard,” he explained.

On Monday, near the European Council building in Brussels, there was a protest by farmers from several EU countries, mainly expressing their concerns about signing the free trade agreement between the EU and the South American countries of the Mercosur association.

Takáč said that from Slovakia’s point of view, this agreement can be viewed in two ways. On one hand, the removal of tariffs for cars and other goods will benefit the entire EU and also Slovak companies and exports. “As the Minister of Agriculture, I have some unanswered questions about how it will reciprocally look concerning the import of agricultural commodities from South American countries to the EU. I do not yet have sufficient information on how it will actually be, how it will be approved, the standards, limits, and other data,” said Takáč. According to him, European farmers have the biggest concerns mainly about the import of sugar, beef, and honey from the Mercosur countries. (December 9th)

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