On Friday 9 October, the NGO Greenpeace released the text of the EU/Mercosur Association Agreement (which contains the free trade agreement concluded by the two parties) and deplored the absence in the text of a sanction clause requiring that the EU and the Mercosur countries respect the climate and protect the environment.
“Unlike requirements in the deal to respect human rights or to resist the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, environmental and climate protection is not considered an ‘essential element’, and parties to the agreement cannot be sanctioned for breaches”, the NGO points out.
Although the text mentions the Paris Agreement and calls for its rapid implementation, it does not contain binding commitments to support it or repercussions if parties do not implement it, the organisation said.
Furthermore, while the agreement encourages investment by the financial sector, including the European Investment Bank (EIB), it does not require that such investments meet sustainability criteria.
Greenpeace also deplores provisions in the text for the creation of an ‘Association Council’ and an ‘Association Committee’ to support the latter. According to the NGO, these structures “are situated outside the democratic processes and exclude the European Parliament and national parliaments from the decision-making process”.
According to the released text, the Association Council would be composed of representatives of each of the parties at ministerial level and would have the power to take decisions binding on the parties to the agreement, including decisions on the interpretation of the provisions.
Contacted by EUROPE, a spokesperson for the European Commission asserted that “the EU-Mercosur agreement contains legally binding commitments on environmental protection and climate change”.
They also underlined the recent commitment of Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the Commission and new Commissioner for Trade, not to pursue the process of ratifying the agreement until the EU has obtained commitments from Mercosur countries, in particular Brazil, on the fight against deforestation (see EUROPE 12573/7).
It should be noted that in July 2019, the Commission published the ‘Trade’ section of the Association Agreement.
See the text released by Greenpeace: https://bit.ly/30MC8WO (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)