Macron: EU-Mercosur trade agreement cannot be signed in its current form

The French president has warned that Paris will not accept a European Union (EU) trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur without more robust safeguards for French farmers.

Emmanuel Macron's warning was sounded on Thursday as European leaders gathered in Brussels for a summit.

„I want to say to our farmers, who have made France's position clear all along: we believe that we have not yet reached our objectives and that the agreement cannot be signed“ as it stands now, Macron told reporters.

He pledged that France would oppose any "attempts to push this through".

Farmers, particularly in France, are worried that the deal with Mercosur, which will be discussed at the leaders' meeting, will hurt them with the flow of cheaper goods from agricultural giant Brazil and its neighbours.

The head of the European Commission (EC) is due to travel to Brazil on Saturday to sign the agreement, which would create the world's biggest free trade area after 20 years of negotiations.

But EU member states must first approve it, while influential France has asked for the signing to be postponed until 2026 because its conditions have not yet been met.

Thousands of farmers protested on the streets of Brussels on Thursday against plans to conclude a trade deal with Mercosur and reform agricultural subsidies.