EU-Mercosur
Governments push through agreement in defiance of farmers and the European Parliament
EU-Mercosur: governments push through agreement in defiance of farmers and the European Parliament
On Friday 9 January, a majority of Member States* voted in favour of the EU-Mercosur agreement. They thus gave the green light to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa to fly to Paraguay, where an official ceremony to celebrate the agreement will take place on 12 January.
They also decided to provisionally apply the trade section of the agreement without waiting for the European Parliament to give its opinion, which is contrary to a framework agreement between the institutions and the principle of sincere cooperation enshrined in the European treaties.
Furthermore, the Member States adopted the legislation intended to protect farmers from the influx of sensitive products from Mercosur (beef, poultry, soya, rice, ethanol, sugar, etc.), even though farmers have been denouncing the inanity of this safeguard measure for months and continue to do so today. This measure will be all the less effective as the Council and the Commission have deleted the article created by the European Parliament on reciprocity conditions. Finally, farmers are not fooled by the anticipated payment of €45 billion under the Common Agricultural Policy, especially as the overall budget has been cut by 20%.
This is a double penalty for European farmers, who are getting neither guarantees against unfair competition nor guarantees on their income.
Saskia Bricmont, negotiator of the European Parliament's position on the agreement for the Greens/EFA Group, said:
"The vote by our governments shows contempt for our farmers and the European democratic process. It is a denial of democracy that will cost taxpayers dearly, as they will have to bear the costs (losses and compensation related to the negative impacts of the agreement, in terms of jobs or health, for example).
I have asked the President of the European Parliament, the Chair of the Committee on International Trade and the European Commission to express their disapproval to the Cypriot Presidency of the Council regarding the provisional entry into force of the agreement before the European Parliament's consent vote. I call on my colleagues from other groups to do the same because, regardless of how the agreement is assessed, Parliament – and through it, the European people – is not being respected.
Finally, now that the Council's position is clear, I call on the President of the European Parliament to put to the vote, as she promised, the resolution that I co-signed with 144 other MEPs requesting an opinion from the European Court of Justice on the compatibility of the EU-Mercosur agreement with the European Treaties.”
*France, Poland, Ireland, Austria and Hungary voted against; Belgium abstained.
