German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner took a stand against the trade agreement between the European Union and the South American bloc Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) at the Informal Meeting of EU Ministers in Koblenz on Tuesday 1 September.
“I do not yet see the agreement with Mercosur being ratified. I have very clear reasons to be very, very sceptical”, said Ms Klöckner. “As far as Mercosur is concerned, we - Agriculture Ministers - are very, very sceptical”, she added (see EUROPE 12374/5).
In South America, tropical forests would be cleared for farmland and European farmers would then have to compete with food produced in an environmentally damaging way. A more regional supply is the lesson to be learned from the Covid-19 crisis, Klöckner argued.
On 21 August, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had for the first time expressed serious doubts about the trade agreement, pointing to the continuing deforestation and fires, which have increased in recent weeks in the Amazon. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, had threatened not to ratify the agreement if Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazilian government did not take the necessary measures to protect the world’s largest rainforest. However, fires increased by 28% in July 2020 compared to July 2019.
Furthermore, in a press release, the German EU Council Presidency welcomes the EU Council’s “fundamental support” for the creation of a European animal welfare label and the establishment of a European legal framework “with binding criteria” (see EUROPE 12550/10).
Julia Klöckner also called for a review of EU provisions on the transport of farm animals, which she said leave “too much room for interpretation”. An evaluation of the animal welfare legislation is underway. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)