CORRESPONDENCE FROM STRASBOURG Victor Negrescu: The Government did not consult farmers before making the decision on the agreement with Mercosur

The Government representatives were wrong not to discuss our country's position on the EU-Mercosur agreement with the representatives of farmers' associations, said yesterday Victor Negrescu, Vice President of the European Parliament, MEP from PSD/S&D.

After discussing with the Romanian farmers present at the protest in Strasbourg, Victor Negrescu stated: "I think it is crucial now, after I went again to discuss with the Romanian farmers present here in very large numbers, not to leave farmers and people living in smaller communities, be they rural or smaller urban, in the hands of extremists. I noticed that several of these extremists manipulate, give erroneous information about the decision-making process, and about the discussions held, and about the agreement itself, and about the European funds. I believe that it is the duty of any responsible politician in our country to dialogue with these people. These are not easy discussions; they can be extremely tense and the dissatisfaction is, and we must say, real. But the most wrong thing - and I think that in this sense the government representatives who decided Romania's position regarding the agreement here were the most wrong - is that they did not discuss. They basically pushed these people of good faith, some of whom used European money, in the hands of extremists because they did not discuss. In this sense, I take this opportunity to appeal to the political class in Romania to show more responsibility, more attention, more resistance to criticism, but especially to dialogue in order to avoid this disaster. Because if today we lose farmers, tomorrow we lose workers, the day after tomorrow we lose miners, the day after tomorrow we lose IT-ists, what do we do? It is important to dialogue, to express our points of view and obviously people will choose what they want to believe and who they empower with their trust. But today the way the matter was approached is the wrong way and I noticed it in the dialogue with the farmers. I thank them for being willing to have these interactions and these intense debates where they were, in front of the European Parliament, because we went to them as befits any person elected by the citizens”.

The Vice-President of the European Parliament mentioned that he had a meeting with the European Commissioner for Trade, Maro¹ ©efèoviè, and the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Christopher Hansen, in an attempt to obtain additional guarantees for European farmers and more protective measures to support Romanian agriculture. Victor Negrescu showed that, in the discussions he had with the two European officials, he stressed the need to have more efficient controls on the products coming from the Mercosur area to Europe, to ensure that those products are of quality and that they comply with European standards.

"We also requested that there be specific support for Romania in order to be able to potentially trigger that mechanism to block the agreement if quotas or quality standards are violated, and we asked for an increase in subsidies for Romanian farmers to reach a real convergence with other European farmers”, Victor Negrescu also said.

Regarding the vote that the European Parliament is to take today on sending the agreement with Mercosur to the Court of Justice of the European Union, for its analysis in light of the legislation of the community bloc, Mr. Negrescu specified that, in fact, the European deputies will have to vote on two proposals.

"There are two requests of this kind. A request proposed by extremist MEPs, which is not well argued and which we will certainly reject, and there is a request coming from a group of pro-European MEPs, over 140 MEPs, where there are some arguments. The main arguments concern the fact that this decision to conclude the agreement was taken without the prior consent of the national parliaments, without consultation with the beneficiaries or the farmers. The MEPs also complain about the fact that a mechanism has been introduced through which Latin American states can question certain European standards and can request certain financial solutions, certain legal decisions so that they can protect their commercial interests. Which means that we have this risk that our partners will not agree with certain decisions regarding the quality of products or the environmental standards that we impose here at the European level and will question them and, why not, request certain financial compensation. There are also certain elements of legal clarification on how it was decided to break this trade agreement into two parts, a trade part that can enter into force at any time and a consistent policy that would be ratified by the member states. These elements are highlighted there. That is why we are clearly assessing what needs to be done”, the Vice-President of the European Parliament said.

He noted that referring the EU-Mercosur agreement to the Court of Justice of the European Union would mean a process that could last up to two years, during which the court's decision could be awaited, which would lead to a postponement of the European Parliament's vote on the Mercosur agreement, a vote that should have been expressed in April-May 2026, after a prior assessment in the relevant committees. Mr Negrescu did not rule out, however, that, until a ruling by the CJEU is issued, the European Commission could decide to implement the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, but he specified that, according to his information, the Community Executive is not considering this option for the time being.