After two decades of negotiation, the Mercosur agreement looks like it is a done deal for Europe. It is a bad deal for Irish farmers but it is a disaster for the environment in a world that needs to protect its Amazon forest green lung and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A central issue here is how increased demand for South American beef for export to the EU markets is going to create a demand for more land and more cattle, resulting in more jungle being felled and cleared to make way for poor-quality grazing land. If we are to listen to some of the supporters of this deal, we are told the protracted negotiations have led to a fairer outcome and sufficient safeguards to protect our environment. However, I do not see those safeguards. Indeed, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael MEPs and their respective European parties recently delayed the introduction of a vital law that would protect the Amazon rainforest, namely, the EU's deforestation regulation. This law would have forced EU companies to carry out proper due diligence to ensure they are only selling products that are absolutely guaranteed to be from non-deforested land. That law was first written in 2023. Its implementation was initially delayed from 2024 until the end of 2025. However, just six weeks ago, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael MEPs voted against its immediate implementation and have pushed back its implementation yet one more year. The Irish Government and other governments failed to stop this. At a time when we are being told there are safeguards being built into the Mercosur agreement, the actual EU law that could make a difference has been postponed for yet another year and we have no guarantee that we will see it implemented next year. This shows me that this deal does not have the adequate safeguards for the environment that we have been told it has.

Sentiment score: 0.14