European Parliament sends the deal with Mercosur for legality check

Today, on January 21, the European Parliament decided to send the EU’s trade agreement with the Mercosur countries to the EU Supreme Court to verify its legality.

Thus, the votes of only 10 members of the European Parliament were key to approving the resolution submitted by a cross-party group led by the Greens and left-wing lawmakers, which was supported by liberals, socialists and center-right politicians.

It is noted that the text of the document contains a request to the EU court to verify the compliance of parts of the agreement with EU treaties. The review may take more than a year, which slows down the pace of ratification of the agreement and could undermine confidence in the EU as a partner.

The vote took place amid tense protests by farmers outside the parliament building in Strasbourg. The demonstration was supported by some lawmakers.

“Today we have won our first victory in Mercosur and demonstrated our support for farmers. It was our duty as lawmakers to check the legality of the agreement. Now the ball is in the hands of the European Commission,” French MEP from the Green Party Majduline Sbai told the publication.

EU treaties allow for the temporary application of trade agreements without the consent of the European Parliament.

MEP Kathleen van Brempt said that she had received assurances from EU Trade Representative Maroš Šefčovič that the EC would not apply the agreement provisionally without putting it to a vote in the European Parliament.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Tags: Brazil, EU, Argentina