The NGO Greenpeace has published a study on Wednesday 11 May that questions the Sustainability Impact Assessments (SIA) that the European Commission commissions when negotiating a new trade agreement. According to the authors, the analysis carried out by external consultants does not take sufficient account of any socio-economic and environmental effects of the agreements.
The NGO has criticised the Commission for primarily basing it on economic indicators, which it claims are biased. “Since it is taken for granted that increasing international trade flows, removing tariffs and regulations is positive per se, the outcome of the simulation can only turn out in favour of the agreement that proposes such changes”, say the authors.
They also regret that the effects of CO2 emissions from freight transport are not accounted for in the impact assessments.
In addition, they note that the European Commission sometimes fails to meet its timetable for commissioning the impact assessment. The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, has criticised the European Commission in March 2021 for concluding negotiations with Mercosur countries without waiting for the agreement’s sustainability impact assessment (SIA) to be finalised (see EUROPE 12682/12). The authors use the example of the EU-Mercosur negotiations specifically in order to point out the procedural shortcomings of the Commission.
See the Greenpeace study: https://aeur.eu/f/1l6 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)