After the Dutch Parliament (see EUROPE 13136/30), it is now the French MPs who have opposed the EU/Mercosur trade agreement, in a resolution adopted on Tuesday 13 June. Through this text, the French National Assembly is asking its government to inform the European Commission and the EU Council of France’s opposition to the agreement “in the absence of access to the European market conditional on compliance with European production standards and sustainability and traceability criteria”.
For the MPs, the agreement should also contain a suspension clause in the event of non-compliance with the Paris Agreement by one of the Mercosur countries.
The French MPs are also opposed to the trade part of the EU/Mercosur agreement being separated from the rest in order to speed up ratification. According to experts commissioned by the NGO Greenpeace Germany, such a separation would in any case be illegal under the negotiating mandate given by the EU Council to the Commission.
The resolution adopted on 13 June is cross-party and the French MEP Yannick Jadot (Greens/EFA) highlighted this at a press briefing on Tuesday 13 June with members of several NGOs.
He also referred to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s comments the previous day about the EU’s lack of confidence in Brazil. “The agreement is sanctionable when it comes to trade in goods, but when it comes to the biggest challenges facing humanity, such as climate change, we should be content with ‘trust’. This cannot work”, insisted the MEP.
To see the resolution adopted by the French National Assembly (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/7GG (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)