On Monday, a two-day G20 summit begins in Rio de Janeiro, where the European Union plans to sign a free trade agreement with the Mercosur Economic Union. The members of this South American organisation are Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela.

In response to the possible signing of this agreement, Polish farmers launched a campaign on Friday against Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the authorities, urging them to oppose the signing of this agreement.

Interestingly, the Mercosur free trade agreement has been around 20 years in the making, and it is not only Polish farmers who are worried about it, but also farmers in other countries.

It is argued that the agreement between the EU and Mercosur will significantly reduce the competitiveness of Europeans. Polish farmers will face fierce competition in the poultry, beef, pork and dairy sectors. But the same applies to other EU countries as well.

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of production

„Cheap food products will flood the European market after the free trade agreement,“ says the Greater Poland Chamber of Agriculture.  

The Polish market alone will reportedly receive up to 180,000 tonnes of sugar, 90,000 tonnes of beef, 180,000 tonnes of poultry meat, 3.4 million tonnes of maize and 8.2 million hectolitres of biofuels.

The FTA will be signed by representatives of the European Commission, who have repeatedly stressed the need to reduce funding for EU agriculture in the light of new realities.

Polish farmers are emphasising exactly this by opposing the agreement with Mercosur. They argue that the EU is sacrificing agriculture for vague goals.

„In South American countries, production is increasing at the expense of rainforest areas, which is undoubtedly damaging the climate. Opening the European market to food produced in this way is nothing less than the export of emissions from one region of the globe to another, especially since the European Commission has again postponed the anti-forestry directive, which was supposed to prevent such situations," the Polish farmers' appeal reads.

Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador have the status of associate members of MERCOSUR, while Mexico has observer status.

Major media try to "overlook" it?

Ironically, as the European Union plans to respond to the farmers' protests, MEP Ewa Zajączkowska posted a photo of a photo of democracy on one side of a barrier and a barrier against protesters on the other.

„This is how the Eurocrats are preparing for tomorrow's farmer protests. As you can see, openness and a willingness to listen to dissent are in line with the slogan on the European Parliament building - „Democracy in action“," writes Ewa Zajączkowska. Farmers will protest against the EU's trade agreement with Mercosur, which will see our market flooded with agricultural products from South America, without meeting the strict standards that EU farmers are required to meet. In other words, a repeat of the situation where often poor quality products flooded in from the Ukraine, only this time from a different direction...

The MEP says that the mainstream media is trying to cover up these protests and is urging people to share information with each other and on social networks.