The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, has ruled that the European Commission showed “maladministration” in its decision on Wednesday 17 March to conclude negotiations on the trade agreement with Mercosur. In her view, the Commission should have waited for the finalisation of the sustainability impact assessment (SIA) of the agreement before taking it into account in its negotiations.
“Concluding a trade agreement before its potential impact has been fully assessed risks undermining the EU's values and the public's ability to debate the merits of the deal. It also risks weakening European and national parliaments’ ability to comprehensively debate the trade agreement”, said Emily O'Reilly.
Five civil society organisations (ClientEarth, Fern, the Veblen Institute, the Nicolas Hulot Foundation for Nature and Humanity and the International Federation for Human Rights) had referred the matter to the European Ombudsman in June 2020. They call on the Commission to take into account impact assessments in future negotiations on free trade agreements.
In 2003 a SIA was commissioned by the Commission and the final version was published in 2009. Judging that the economic context had changed, the Commission initiated a new study in 2017. While the final report was published in July 2020, it is the European Commission’s synthesis document that finalises the study. This has not yet been published.
The Commission took note of the decision and expressed its position on 18 March: “We are addressing the outstanding issues identified by the final SIA, with special view on sustainability, before we propose the agreement for signature”.
ClientEarth’s lawyer , Amandine Van Den Berghe, said after the judgement was published: “With this decision, it’s clear that the Commission attached little consideration to non-economic factors when it negotiated its trade deal with Mercosur countries”.
Anna Cavazzini (Greens/EFA, Germany) said “the ratification process must be stopped”.
See the decision: https://bit.ly/30ZFm96 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)