The NGO Greenpeace in Germany published a legal analysis of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement on Monday 26 February. The authors of the document claim that the agreement contravenes European climate law, as it will lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
“The current draft FTA goes against Art. 2 of the EU Climate Law, which requires the EU to adopt measures to achieve its emissions reduction targets, and against Art. 6 of the EU Climate Law, which requires the Commission to assess the compatibility of EU measures with the Union’s climate-neutrality objectives”, say the authors of the report.
Greenpeace questions the impact study commissioned by the Commission, insofar as it omits certain sources of emissions, such as freight transport, deforestation and changes in land use following the agreement.
See the Greenpeace analysis: https://aeur.eu/f/b13
Transparency in negotiations
Another publication, also released on 26 February, highlights the lack of transparency in negotiations between the EU and Mercosur. The organisations Friends of the Earth Europe, Anders handeln and Netzwerk Gerechter Welthandel, for example, are critical of the fact that certain parts of the agreement have not yet been published.
This is the case for the chapter on the general provisions of the agreement, for example. This will include “important information on the ratification process of the Agreement and its entry into force. It will also define the functioning of the Association Committee, which will oversee the application of the whole Agreement”, state the three organisations. Without good knowledge of these elements, “there is no guarantee that mechanisms of democratic control and scrutiny will be provided for”, they add.
What’s more, the authors of the document point out that it remains unclear whether the trade part of the agreement might be separated so that it can be ratified separately, more quickly.
See analysis: https://aeur.eu/f/b12 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)