Although the safeguard clause in the EU-Mercosur agreement, approved on the evening of Wednesday 17 December by the EU's co-legislators, appears to be in line with the demands of France and Italy, the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU will not be able to obtain the approval of the Member States on Friday 19 December to authorise the European Commission to sign the Mercosur agreement this Saturday in Brazil.
Faced with pressure and requests for postponement from France and Italy, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on 18 December to Member States that she would be postponing her trip. She is now expected to visit Latin America in January. (see other article).
On Wednesday 17 December, negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU Council reached an agreement on the details of the safeguard clause, which somewhat consolidates the Commission’s proposal, but does not include most of the European Parliament’s demands (see EUROPE 13775/9).
French President, Emmanuel Macron, admitted, on his arrival at the European Council, on Thursday 18 December that the text had been improved. He did, however, justify his refusal to press ahead with the signing of the trade agreement. “What I’m saying is that it [the safeguard text, editor's note] hasn’t passed through Parliament, so it needs to be voted on, then presented and accepted by the Mercosur states”, he said.
If the date of approval of the safeguard regulation by Member States is uncertain, it will not be voted on in the European Parliament before January. According to Emmanuel Macron, it is necessary to wait until at least January for the regulation to be adopted, and also to see the initial effects of the tighter sanitary controls on agri-food imports, before giving the go-ahead to the trade agreement.
A safeguard that will not convince the agricultural sector. The abandonment of parliamentary demands in the regulation is not to everyone’s liking.
Benoît Cassart MEP (Renew Europe, Belgian), a beef farmer, accused the Commission and the Council of ignoring the voice of the people as expressed by the vote in the European Parliament. He initiated an amendment on the reciprocity of sanitary and phytosanitary standards in the agreement.
This ‘mirror clause’ in the text has been transformed into an annexed statement of intent, in which the European Commission undertakes to work on the subject.
The implementation of this commitment “is far from certain”, according to Belgian MEP Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA). “For the Greens, it’s definitely no, and it’s not certain that when the text of the safeguard comes back to the European Parliament, there will be a majority to support it”.
The European Parliament’s rapporteur for the text, Gabriel Mato (EPP, Spanish), welcomed the agreement. He hopes that the EU will now be able to move towards ratification (see other news).
See the annexed document: https://aeur.eu/f/k2j (Original version in French by Léa Marchal with Solenn Paulic)