EU–Mercosur Association Agreement

[1][2] The agreement is praised [3] but also criticized by NGOs, scientists, unions, farmers and indigenous people with both positive and negative aspects usually balanced during discussions.

[clarification needed][13] The EU may have hoped that the emerging deal would represent a significant break in this global renewal of protectionism.

[13] European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker cited the deal as an endorsement of "rules-based trade" in a time of growing protectionism.

[2] The deal will allow increased access to the European market for Mercosur's agricultural goods, notably beef, poultry, sugar and ethanol.

[2] Legal guarantees will be put in place protecting 357 European food and drink products from imitation including Prosciutto di Parma and Fromage de Herve.

"[16] In June 2024, during a meeting in Berlin, Olaf Scholz and Argentine President Javier Milei expressed support for a free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur.

[17] The planned deal has been denounced by scientists, trade unions, NGOs, European beef farmers, environmental activists and indigenous rights campaigners.

[22][4] Conventional meat production and soy cultivation in the Mercosur goes together with destruction of the Amazon rainforest, which is one of the world's largest carbon sinks.

[25] Production of meat, soy for animal food and Bio-Ethanol gained from sugar cane will cause the destruction of argentinian Gran Chaco and brasilian Cerrado besides the amazon.

[4] BASF and Bayer and other chemical companies are already selling large amounts of pesticides and toxins in non-EU countries which are illegal inside the EU.

He has been accused of weakening Brazil's environmental ministry,[18] encouraging farming and mining expansion in the area[18] and turning a blind eye to illegal destruction.

[29] The current environment minister, Ricardo Salles, has imposed the lowest number of fines for illegal deforestation in a decade.

[30] According to Jonathan Watts ‘negotiations took almost two decades, which may explain why the outcome signed in July 2019 reflects the pro-industry values of the past rather than the environmental concerns of the present’.

[22] An editorial in The Irish Times states “EU countries are committing to achieving net-zero carbon by 2050, but this will prove meaningless if the planet’s greatest carbon sink is destroyed.” [24] Former French environment minister Nicolas Hulot denounced the agreement in an interview with Le Monde, claiming that is "completely contradictory" to the EU's climate goals and warning that it would enable further destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

[32] Furthermore, civil society groups have protested that the predicted scale deforestation fostered by the deal would be non-compliant under the climate change goals under the Paris Agreement.

In June 2020, five NGOs filed a complaint with the European Ombudsman, criticizing the external sustainability impact assessment for the trade pillar negotiations for not including current environmental data, especially concerning deforestation.”[33] On April 17 2024, the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament published a study,  “Alternatives for a fair and sustainable partnership between the EU and Mercosur: scenarios and guidelines”[34] in which they outline four alternatives in which they feel they could support an association agreement between the EU and Mercosur.

[36] This letter echoed a similar plea made in May by 600 European scientists and 300 indigenous groups, which called on the EU to demand that Brazil respect environmental and human rights standards as a precondition for concluding the Mercosur trade negotiations.

[37] In July 2019, a symbolic motion rejecting the trade deal was passed in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish legislature, by 84 votes to 46.

[38] On 28 August Slovak Agriculture Minister Gabriela Matečná said Slovakia would block the agreement because of Brazil's unacceptable approach to the Amazon fires.

[39] In September 2019, lawmakers on the Austrian parliament's EU subcommittee almost unanimously voted to reject the draft free trade agreement citing concerns over their national farming sector and the Amazon forest fires.

As such the government is obliged to veto the pact at EU level, where all 28 member states and their parliaments must agree to trade deals.

[42] The government of the Belgian capital region Brussels stated on 14 July 2020 that the agreement was unacceptable in its current form and listed a series of preconditions.

[44] On 20 August 2020 the German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed doubts about the EU-Mercosur trade deal and whether it could go through in its current form.

[45] On 29 September 2020 Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that Ireland would not ratify the EU-Mercosur trade deal unless new enforceable environmental guarantees were added.

[47] Later that day, EU's Commission vice-president for trade Valdis Dombrovskis cancelled a visit he would make along with a European delegation to a Mercosur summit in Rio de Janeiro on December 7 to reportedly announce the agreement had been concluded.

[53] Once the texts are final and legally revised they would need to be translated in all EU and Mercosur official languages.

[2] However, in the EU the trade part of the agreement (and some elements of the preamble, institutional and final provisions) may already be implemented provisionally after the ratification by the Mercosur and the approval of the European Parliament.