Australia's right to make and sell prosecco is expected to be protected under a long-awaited free trade pact set to be signed with the European Union after almost a decade of negotiations, but prosecco exporters will be forced to drop the name in a decade.  

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are expected to green-light the deal in Canberra later today and sign a new security partnership that could bolster defence industry cooperation between Europe and Australia.

Final details of the much-anticipated trade deal are not yet public, but it is expected to include an important carve-out that allows Australian winemakers to retain the right to use the name "prosecco" for the locally made Italian-style sparkling wine.

It would make Australia the only country outside of Italy to have secured that right, but the right to export under the name would be phased out over a 10-year period. 

The deal is set to slash tariffs on countless goods, with Mr Albanese declaring during Question Time yesterday that an EU trade deal would "give Australian farmers and growers and exporters better access to a market of 450 million consumers".

It would also allow the government to boast about filling the largest remaining gap in Australia's free trade architecture, bolstering the global trading system while it was under enormous international strain.

One European government source told the ABC that both sides were making compromises to get the agreement over the line in the face of the Trump administration's assault on global trade rules.

While the deal will substantially improve market access for Australian farmers, industry groups look set to be disappointed by the outcome on red meat, which was key to the collapse of talks back in 2023.

The EU has been adamant it would only allow about 30,000 tonnes of imported Australian beef in every year tariff free, with several member nations deeply uneasy about possible political blowback from farmers in the wake of a separate EU deal with the Mercosur bloc of South American nations.

Although the final result is still unclear, it is set to be well short of the 50,000 tonnes of beef and 67,000 tonnes of lamb that the National Farmers Federation (NFF) had been pushing for.

NFF president Hamish McIntyre told the ABC he still believed Australia should "walk away" if there were not big improvements to the EU's offer on meat.

"We need to remember that this is a generational deal," he said.

"This isn't a short-term thing, this will be for our children in 30 or 40 years' time.

"So there's no hurry, we need to get this right. 

It is a sentiment shared by Nationals leader Matt Canavan, who said while he had not yet seen the details of the deal, it did not seem "all that attractive". 

The senator said he expected to be briefed on the agreement in the coming days.

"When the Coalition was in government, we signed [a] deal with the UK and we have, under that deal, eventually unlimited exports of beef, or cheese, sugar and lamb and wheat too," he told RN Breakfast. 

"The early reports indicate the best we could perhaps hope for [in the EU agreement] is a few 10 thousand tonnes more of red meat access to a much larger market."

Senator Canavan questioned why the Albanese government had not managed to reach a similar deal to the UK agreement with the EU. 

"The government has said a good deal is better than any deal, but I'm just concerned here by these early reports that the government has rolled over, they seem to have sold out our national sovereignty and we don't [have] much for it," he said.

"I want to see a good deal, I want to see improved market access for Australian exporters, farmers and the like, but I'm not in the interest of selling out Australian sovereignty."

Meanwhile, the government appears to have struck a compromise on Australia's luxury car tax, which has frustrated European car-makers, with the Financial Times reporting the EU has dropped its bid to scrap the tax entirely.

Both sides also appear to be heading towards a compromise that would allow Australian producers to keep using many names claimed by European producers — like prosecco, parmesan and fetta — although it is likely some would still have to be phased out on exports overseas.

Senator Canavan has raised issues with the European Union dictating how products are labelled on Australian soil. 

"Somehow if we get to keep selling products in our own country with the names we choose, that's described as a reprieve," he said.

"This is our country, isn't it? Not the EU's. 

"Surely we get to decide what happens in our own country."

The agreement is likely to significantly bolster the critical minerals trade between Australia and the EU, which is key for European nations looking to cut their reliance on China for the raw materials they need for defence industries and the green energy transition.

Officials have also flagged the agreement will cover new labour mobility arrangements that could make it much easier for Australians to work and live in the European Union, as well as the other way around.

Australia and the EU hope the free trade deal will buttress the broader strategic relationship between both sides, which are each grappling with increasingly belligerent authoritarian powers and the ruptures caused by a deeply unpredictable Trump administration.

Ms von der Leyen has put a premium on expanding the bloc's relationships beyond its traditional allies, and Mr Albanese said her address to federal parliament would be a "milestone moment for the relationship between Australia and the European Union".

Ms von der Leyen will become the first female foreign leader to address federal parliament during the special joint sitting today.

The EU has publicly flagged that it will sign a security partnership with Australia this week, following similar arrangements already struck with a host of other countries, including Canada, Japan, India and South Korea.

Ms von der Leyen first proposed the partnership when meeting Mr Albanese last year in Rome, and Australia has warmed to the idea despite the prime minister's initially lukewarm response.

The new agreement will not be a binding treaty or security pact, but Matthew Sussex from the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific, said it could allow Canberra to access EU programs and funding designed to encourage joint defence industry projects.

"We're in an era where Australia is looking to diversify some of its purchasing of military equipment and there's very much an urgency about acquiring things like uncrewed systems," he told the ABC.

"The European Union is a leader in that respect."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-24/eu-australia-free-trade-agreement-reached/106488438

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