Despite farmers’ protests, the left-wing political groups together with the EPP expose them to further dumping under the Mercosur-EU deal

Press release by Enikő Győri and Csaba Dömötör

At today’s Strasbourg plenary, the European Parliament adopted the Commission’s legislative proposal on the safeguard clause attached to the Mercosur-EU agreement. While this would, on paper, protect farmers, in practice it fails to provide sufficient guarantees for European agriculture – particularly for smaller markets such as Hungary.

As Fidesz MEPs Enikő Győri and Csaba Dömötör said, the left-wing political groups together with the EPP rejected every Patriots amendment that would have introduced tighter border controls or stronger food-safety safeguards. This comes at a time when the renewed EU-Ukraine DCFTA are already unleashing a wave of imports onto the EU market, while European farmers continue to shoulder heavy obligations under the green agenda.

“The agreed safeguard clause does not curb unfair competition, which is why we voted against the proposal. The opposition votes speak for themselves: Tisza did not even dare take a position – failing to press the voting button at all and disregarding the will of Hungarian farmers,” said Enikő Győri after the vote.