Unsurprisingly, on Thursday 22 January, the European Parliament rejected the motion of censure against the ‘von der Leyen II’ Commission tabled by the far-right PfE group to denounce the signing of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement and Europe’s betrayal of its farmers (165 votes in favour, 390 against, 10 abstentions) (see EUROPE 13788/13).
The votes in favour of censure were mainly cast by the far-right PfE and ESN groups, as well as the Polish and French delegations. Having tabled a motion of censure (see EUROPE 13727/1), The Left group did not take part in the vote, with a few exceptions, refusing to give credit to this initiative.
On the evening of Monday 19 January, the plenary session debate on the motion of censure saw Mercosur emerge as a common thread of discontent with the President of the European Commission.
Ursula von der Leyen was by turns accused of betraying the interests of European farmers, burdening them with bureaucratic standards and creating unfair competition, and was heavily criticised by a number of MEPs, mostly from the far right and radical left.
Other, more moderate, MEPs also took advantage of the debate to reiterate their opposition to the free trade agreement with four South American countries.
“This motion is a decoy, a sham, a parody of resistance. But if it exists today, it is because the Commission has failed”, said Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA, French). In her view, Mercosur is “incompatible with the EU’s climate objectives” and will not resolve the major issue of European sovereignty, she added.
The President of the Commission was able to count on the support of her Christian Democrat political family, united within the EPP group. “We are in the midst of a global storm and this is no time for political sabotage. All too often, the extremes in this Assembly try to block common European solutions, ensure that problems remain unresolved, and then use these issues as weapons for political ends. This is not opposition, it is a strategy of self-destruction”, insisted Jeroen Lenaers (EPP, Dutch).
Although the motion of censure failed on Wednesday, the Parliament decided, by a narrow majority, to refer the matter to the Court of Justice of the EU for a ruling on the compatibility of the EU-Mercosur agreement with EU law. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre and Mathieu Bion)