Chapter 1: Why are European farmers protesting in Brussels?
Europe's farmers are on the streets. Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Gideon Long. Good morning.
That's the sound of farmers from across Europe out in force on the streets of Brussels today protesting against a European Union plan to sign a trade deal with the South American economic bloc Mercosur, which groups together Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The deal covers all aspects of trade between the two blocs, but the most controversial is agriculture.
Peter Miedendorp is a Dutch farmer and president of the European Council of Young Farmers. He's in Brussels for the demonstration.
Today we are protesting because for us the future of farming is at stake. Firstly, it's about the next European budget proposals, which we're seeing are deeply worrying us. And of course, the Mercature Agreement is also a major concern for us. The agreement with the South American countries creates unfair competition and unequal standards.
We see that agriculture in the EU bears the costs of these agreements. Sectors like beef, sugar, rice and poultry face competition from imports that are produced under other standards with a competitiveness which we in the EU as family farms cannot compete with.
Let's hear a bit more about what's behind the row from the BBC's Nick Marsh.
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Chapter 2: What are the implications of the Mercosur trade deal for EU agriculture?
This is the difficulty for the EU because you've got the US imposing tariffs left, right and centre, including on European exports. You need new markets to sell to. You need to be able to sell to places like South America. But then in return, that means cheap goods are going to be coming into Europe.
Historically, the EU has always wanted to support its farmers as much as possible, even though we're really talking about... Two, three percent of European GDP depends on the country, of course. But farmers historically have demanded this support because food is important. Keeping prices stable is important.
But when you're spending so much on Ukraine, when you have tariff threats, you need to find new markets. It's hard to find that right balance.
And in the last hour or so, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said the figures in the deal don't add up and that France is not yet prepared to sign it. The oil giant BP has appointed a new chief executive, and for the first time, it's a woman. Meg O'Neill will in fact become the first woman to run any big global oil firm.
She's currently the boss of the Australian oil and gas company Woodside Energy. She'll replace BP's current CEO, Murray Auchincloss, who's been in the post less than two years. Under Miss O'Neill, BP is expected to continue its recent strategy of refocusing on its core oil and gas business, rather than renewables. Let's do the numbers.
Drinks maker Diageo, owner of global brands like Johnny Walker, Smirnoff and Guinness, is offloading its 65% stake in East African breweries, selling to Asahi Holdings in Japan for $2.3 billion. The US has approved the sale of $11 billion worth of weapons to Taiwan. The package includes rockets, drones and anti-tank missiles.
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Chapter 3: How does the EU plan to tackle the housing affordability crisis?
And shares in Popmart, the company behind Lububu dolls, dropped 3% on Thursday amid further worries that Lububu mania may be waning. Earlier this week, the European Commission unveiled its first ever affordable housing plan, setting out a roadmap for tackling a Europe-wide housing crisis.
The package aims to free up cash for new homes, rein in short-term rentals and cut red tape for construction projects. Dan Jorgensen is the EU's Housing Commissioner. Commissioner Jorgensen, thanks for joining us here on Marketplace. Thank you. So how big a problem is the lack of affordable housing in Europe?
Well, unfortunately, it is a huge problem. We see almost every country struggling with not having enough housing, meaning that ordinary people find it very difficult to find a place that they can actually pay for. And if they find it, it takes up too much of their budgets. So it makes it difficult for them to pay their bills.
And so that's the problem. What's your solution to the problem? What does the affordable housing plan consist of?
We need more investments, so we will loosen the state aid rules so it's easier for countries to support the building of new affordable housing.
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Chapter 4: What are the challenges of affordable housing in Europe?
But it is a really very big and holistic, complex plan that deals with also homelessness. It deals with how to make sure we standardise in the building sector so that we can construct better and have a better working internal market and so forth.
Housing has traditionally been an area of policy for national governments, not the European Commission. So why is the Commission getting involved?
Well, last year at the European Parliament elections, we saw for the first time that housing was very high on the agenda.
Chapter 5: What solutions does the EU's housing plan propose?
And in some countries, it was even the highest question being discussed. And this shows us that there's a huge pressure from our citizens to do something about this. I don't really think most citizens care. care who it is that actually makes the decisions. They just want the problem solved by the people that they elect.
You mentioned the issue of short-term rentals, holiday rentals in places like Barcelona and Prague. What specifically does this plan say about that?
It's important for me to understand line, it's not a ban. We are not against short-term rentals, but it's good for tourism. It's good for the people that are able to make some money renting out their home. Sometimes that might be the reason why they can afford to live in that home. But in many cities across Europe, we see that they have increasingly become a problem.
So in some cities, it's every fifth home that is actually a short-term rental now, which is far too much. We will set up some criteria for when an area in a city is a so-called stressed housing area.
Chapter 6: How does speculation affect the property market in Europe?
And if that is then the case, we will make it possible to regulate without getting into trouble with internal market rules. So that could be, for instance, put a max number of nights that you could rent an apartment out, or it could be setting restrictions for areas where there's too many short-term rentals saying, okay, now we have a moratorium on introducing new ones.
But it's important that it is, of course, in the end, decisions that are made nationally and locally, but we will provide guidance and we will provide the legal certainty that it can actually be done.
And does the plan say anything about the issue of speculation in the property market, people buying properties just as an investment rather than as a home?
I've listened to experts in the last months telling me sometimes that this is a huge problem, that speculation is really the most important thing for us to deal with, and others saying, no, that's just supply and demand. I suspect that we do have a problem with speculation, but until now, I have to admit, it's mostly a suspicion.
It's not something that we have the data to prove, and for us to actually make actions or...
give recommendations to member states we need more knowledge commissioner jorgensen thanks for joining us on marketplace thank you in the uk i'm gideon long with the marketplace morning report from the bbc world service
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