While the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, landed in Uruguay to finalize the agreement with Mercosur, France, mired in a political crisis, continues to express its opposition to the trade agreement.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has landed in Latin America to finalize the agreement with Mercosurwhile the main European opponent of the agreement, France, is suffering a government collapse.
“The finish line of the EU-Mercosur agreement is in sight,” Von der Leyen published in X on Thursday after landing in Uruguay, adding: “We have the opportunity to create a market of 700 million people. The largest trade and investment partnership the world has ever seen. “Both regions will benefit.”
Paris’s response was immediate. The French president has spoken with Ursula von der Leyen to tell her that the agreement is “unacceptable in its current state” and that France will continue to defend “without truce” its “agricultural sovereignty.”
Paris is fiercely opposed to the agreement, which aims to create a free trade zone between the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and the EU, but with her attention focused elsewhere, Von der Leyen seems willing to move forward to unblock negotiations that have been going on for almost two decades.
Member States express concerns
In 2019, an agreement on Mercosur was reached, but several EU Member States blocked it due to environmental and agricultural concernsas the EU would commit to opening its markets with lower tariffs for quotas on products such as beef, sugar and poultry from South America.
“Final political commitments will be discussed starting tomorrow,” a Commission spokesperson said on Thursday, confirming that Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic also will be in the Uruguayan capitalMontevideo, where the Mercosur countries meet for two days.
In the last stage of the negotiations, the Europeans were pressing for the introduction environmental standards in the agreementas well as a commitment by the Mercosur countries against deforestation. Paris, under pressure from its farmers, has been opposing the end of the agreement for months, while the Commission, pushed by Germany and Spainhas set a goal of concluding an agreement before the end of the year.
“The European Commission has exclusive competence to negotiate commercial agreements“, the Commission spokesperson declared on Thursday, adding: “It does so on the basis of a mandate received from the Member States, including France.”
The political chaos in France affects the pact
Earlier this week, German socialist MEP Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s Trade Committee, said the “emotional situation in France” meant “a problem” for those who intended to finalize the negotiations.
The French political turmoil will not affect national opposition to the deal, which remains overwhelming. Some 484 of the 577 deputies of the National Assembly voted on November 26 in favor of a Government declaration that called the proposed agreement “unacceptable”. Both the far-right and far-left parties, which on Wednesday led the motion of censure that caused the fall of Michel Barnier’s government, are radically opposed to the agreement.
“Whatever happens, we oppose any new trade agreement“, an official from the Ministry of Commerce in Paris told ‘Euronews’ a few days ago. If it is closed, the agreement will have to be adopted by the 27 member states of the European Union. In recent weeks, France has made efforts to convince its partners to join it in a blocking minority to prevent the adoption of the agreement.
Poland has already announced that will join the coalition. Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland are also being courted by France. The Italians’ position remains unclear, with their Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani expressing concern about the situation of Italian farmers on Wednesday, although he also said he supported the deal. A blocking minority would require four Member States representing at least 35% of the European population.
Faced with French opposition, 11 EU Member States sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen in September urging the Commission to take a step forward. Supporters of the agreement stressed the urgency of its conclusion at a time when other powers, such as China, “acquire even greater influence in Latin American markets, both economically and politically.”
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