Sheep Central | 13 February 2026
EU farmers worried about EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement outcome
European farmers this week expressed concern over the EU-Australia free trade deal currently being negotiated.
The united voice of farmers and agri-cooperatives in the European Union, Copa and Cogeca, expressed “serious concern over the renewed push to conclude the EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement.”
Copa is the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations, representing more than 22 million European farmers and their family members, and Cogeca is the General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives, with about 22,000 European agricultural cooperative members.
The combined lobby this week warned that the agreement risks placing a disproportionate burden on European farmers and agri-cooperatives in key sensitive sectors.
Copa president Massimiliano Giansanti said key agricultural sectors such as beef, sheep meat, sugar and rice are already under extreme pressure.
“Years of rising production costs, geopolitical instability, internal policy adjustments and the cumulative impact of successive trade agreements – most recently Mercosur – will significantly weaken the resilience of these sectors,” he said.
“Any further opening of the EU market, even in the form of tariff rate quotas, would only add fuel to the fire, with lasting consequences for production, prices and farm viability across Europe.”
Copa Cogeca is arguing that even marginal increases in market access can significantly destabilise EU markets, given the well-recognised vulnerabilities of these sectors. The lobby also pointed out that the EU represents a consumer market of around 450 million people, compared to Australia’s domestic market of approximately 28 million.
This structural imbalance means that any market opening under the agreement would, by definition, disproportionately benefit Australian exports, while exposing EU farmers to intensified competition in already fragile markets, Copa Cogeca said.
Cogeca president, Lennart Nilsson asked: “How can one not feel that agriculture is once again being treated as the adjustment variable the Commission relies on to secure its trade deals?
“EU farmers and cooperatives are expected to deliver on food security, sustainability, climate objectives and rural vitality, while at the same time absorbing the cumulative impact of trade concessions agreed elsewhere.
“This approach is neither coherent nor sustainable.”
Copa and Cogeca have called on the European Commission to fully recognise the sensitivities of these sectors and to ensure that the any EU-Australia agreement delivers a genuinely balanced outcome for agriculture.
Without a clear acknowledgement of the cumulative pressures facing EU farmers and strict restraint on market opening for sensitive products, the agreement risks undermining production, investment and the future of farming in Europe, the lobby said.
