The Austrian Vice-Chancellor, Werner Kogler (Green Party), sent a letter to the President of the EU Council, António Costa, warning him about the MERCOSUR agreement.
“I ask you to ensure that the vote on the EU-MERCOSUR trade agreement can take place openly, without any political manoeuvre and with the full attention of the public”, the Austrian said.
He referred in particular to a rumour circulating about a possible split of the text in two so that the commercial part of the text would be voted on as an exclusive competence of the EU. This would avoid the need for ratification by all national and regional parliaments in the EU.
The Austrian Parliament already unanimously rejected the text of the agreement in September 2019.
Within the European Parliament or among the Member States, opinions are still divided on the agreement.
Many point to the lack of guarantees on the trade and sustainable development (SDT) chapters and want to reopen the negotiations. Belgian MEP Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA) agreed with the Vice-Chancellor in a press release on 8 March: “No additional protocol or joint declaration will be sufficient to change the actual climatic content”.
For the EPP and the European Commission, the negotiation of joint declarations will suffice to commit the MERCOSUR countries, in particular Brazil (see EUROPE 12669/14).
See the letter: https://bit.ly/30l8DuC (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)