While negotiations for the EU-Mercosur agreement are currently taking place on a daily basis to speed up the conclusion of the additional protocol, more work needs to be done to match our commitments, writes a group of EU lawmakers.
The signatories are a group of cross-party MEPs.**
While the European Commission seems determined to finalise negotiations with Mercosur as quickly as possible, the election of Javier Milei as president of Argentina on November 19, with his devastating environmental policies, is not a detail but a real catastrophe for Argentinians first and foremost, and for Europeans too.
He has already proved it in his declarations: with him, there will be no more Argentine Ministry of the Environment, with him, global warming will not exist, and with him, natural resources will be privatised.
We cannot, on the one hand, adopt the Green Pact, do everything in our power to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, declare a climate emergency, and on the other hand, ratify this agreement that is so harmful to the preservation of biodiversity, the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the fight against deforestation.
Achieving our objectives and remaining an environmental standard-setter will not be possible with the race to the bottom brought about by the Mercosur agreement.
Not just declarations but commitments
For several weeks now, the story of this agreement has been unfolding again at the European level. Negotiations are taking place daily to speed up the conclusion of the additional protocol.
And yet, what are we witnessing? That the conclusions of the agreement – concluded in 2019, but in the freezer ever since – do not offer the means to ensure that our reciprocal commitments are respected.
Admittedly, it includes obligations to respect the key conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), biodiversity preservation objectives and the precautionary principle, but we are powerless to ensure effective implementation with this partner.
This is why we asked for and obtained the creation of an additional instrument to ensure that the words of this agreement are put into practice and have meaning.
By initiating new negotiations on this additional agreement, the European Commission recognised that we were right to think that the agreement was not up to our standards.
And what concrete results? A non-binding declaration of intent, simple recommendations and enhanced cooperation seem to be materialising. Who could believe that this would make the Argentine president bend? Why already abandon the high standards that the European Commission wanted to put in place with the reform of the sustainable trade and development chapters?
Other points concerning the fight against imported deforestation, the implementation of mirror measures, and reciprocity are very worrying if the Commission backs down on these points and concedes further to Mercosur.
What is the future for implementing the deforestation regulation if Mercosur rejects it? What about Mercosur’s rejection of the regulation on neonicotinoid residues in imported products?
These demands would signal the end of reciprocity in this agreement. Such setbacks would be unacceptable. The European Commission seems to be ignoring our legitimate criticisms.
Necessary transformation of trade policy
More than ever, our mobilisation must focus on a European trade policy that is consistent with our collective ambitions and interests.
We continue to hope that this agreement will contribute to a rethinking of the European Union’s trade policy and to the promotion of our flagship policies: agriculture and the environment, which must be reflected with our partners, as is the case with the agreement with New Zealand.
Great strides have been made in recent years in our trade policy, with adopting an offensive arsenal, such as the reform of the trade and sustainable development chapters, reciprocity, and the anti-coercion instrument.
We recognise Brazil’s efforts and welcome the proposal to create a fund to preserve tropical forests. But is this compatible with the Mercosur of Javier Milei, who has himself said he wants to leave the common market?
We must continue to promote high international standards, we must continue to create the conditions for fair competition.
It has to be said that, for the moment, this does not seem to be the case, and it is unthinkable that it should not be.
**Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, Renew Europe MEP, Benoît Lutgen, EPP MEP, Günther Sidl, S&D MEP, Andreas Schieder, S&D MEP, Saskia Bricmont, Greens/EFA MEP, Anna Cavazzini, Greens/EFA MEP