“There is a clear interest in ensuring that the trade agreement with Mercosur enters into force as soon as possible,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said overnight from Thursday to Friday after the EU summit. She added that for it to be provisionally applied, the necessary decisions must be taken by at least one Mercosur country. All of this is being done in Germany’s interest and to the detriment of European agriculture, including Polish farming.
Commission President Wants to Bypass the CJEU
The Mercosur agreement was signed on Saturday, and on Wednesday the European Parliament referred a request to examine its compliance with the EU treaties to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). This will likely delay the chamber’s vote on approving the agreement by at least several months. However, the European Commission has the option of provisionally applying the agreement without its ratification by the European Parliament.
Von der Leyen’s stance has met with enormous criticism. Unfortunately, on Thursday the European Parliament rejected in a vote a motion of no confidence in the European Commission. The motion was submitted at the initiative of the right-wing faction Patriots for Europe in connection with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signing the trade agreement with Mercosur.
Meanwhile, the host of the summit, European Council President António Costa, encouraged von der Leyen to decide on the provisional application of the agreement with the Mercosur bloc, which is made up of four South American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
According to Costa, when making their decision on the agreement, the member states not only authorized the Commission to sign it, but also to apply it provisionally.
“I call on the Commission to use this Council decision and implement the provisional application of the Mercosur agreement,” Costa appealed.
Asked at the post-summit press conference about the provisional entry into force of the agreement, von der Leyen replied: “There is a clear interest in ensuring that the benefits of this important agreement enter into force as soon as possible.”
She emphasized, however, that the European Commission has not yet taken a decision due to the procedure.
“A decision would only be needed at the stage when one or more Mercosur countries complete their procedures and are ready. In short, we will be ready when they are ready,” von der Leyen said.
The European Commission concluded the agreement with Mercosur on January 17 at the summit in the Paraguayan capital, Asunción. Earlier, EU member states had given their consent to its conclusion, despite opposition from Austria, France, Ireland, Poland, and Hungary. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Donald Tusk failed to decisively block this agreement, which is unfavorable to European – including Polish – agriculture, even though he had previously claimed that in the EU “no one would deceive him.”
The agreement was approved despite mass protests by farmers in many European countries. EU farmers fear opening the market to agricultural products from Mercosur, which are produced more cheaply because, among other things, they do not have to meet the EU’s high sanitary standards.
The agreement will introduce tariff preferences for producers of certain agricultural products from Mercosur countries. According to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the deal could bring the European automotive sector export growth of up to EUR 20 billion, or 200 percent. This, of course, refers to German exports.