Farmers of the Coordination Rurale (CR) farmers' union take part in a demonstration with their tractors to protest the EU-Mercosur trade deal in Strasbourg, France, on January 9, 2026. FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP
The EU gave on Friday, January 9, a long-delayed go-ahead to a huge trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur championed by business groups but loathed by many European farmers – overriding opposition led by France. A majority of the European Union's 27 nations backed the pact at an ambassadors' meeting in Brussels, diplomatic sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP), paving the way for it to be inked in Paraguay next week.
More than 25 years in the making, the European Commission sees the deal as crucial to boost exports, support the continent's ailing economy and foster diplomatic ties at a time of global uncertainty. "It's an essential deal, economically, politically, strategically, diplomatically, for the European Union," Commission spokesman Olof Gill said on Thursday.
But Brussels failed to win over all of the bloc's member states. Key power France, where politicians across the divide are up in arms against a deal attacked as an assault on the country's influential farming sector, led an ultimately unsuccessful push to sink it.
