While Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Uruguay with a view to finalizing the EU-Mercosur agreement, Italy is lining up behind the refractory countries.
“The conditions are not met” to sign it as it stands, government sources said.
This free trade agreement has been under discussion for more than 20 years.
“The conditions are not met” to sign the free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur as it stands, Italian government sources said on Thursday. This position comes as the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is expected at the summit of Mercosur countries which opened this Thursday in Montevideo to advance the free trade agreement with the EU, in discussions for over 20 years. “The Italian government considers that the conditions are not met to subscribe to the current text”say these government sources.
“A firm commitment from the Commission”
Rome believes that “the signing can only take place on the condition that adequate protections and compensations in the event of imbalances for the agricultural sector” are put in place. “Firstly, we must ensure that European standards on veterinary and phytosanitary controls are fully respected and, more generally, that products entering the internal market fully respect our standards of consumer protection and quality controls.”
France is at the forefront in the fight against this agreement, and President Emmanuel Macron has “returns” to Mrs von der Leyen that a signature is “unacceptable as it stands”. According to Italian government sources, Rome intends to demand to reach an agreement “a firm commitment from the Commission to constantly monitor the risk of market disruptions and, in such a case, to activate a rapid and effective compensation system”. “A possible Italian green light for the signing of the agreement by the EU therefore remains conditional on the provision of concrete and effective measures to take into account the concerns of the European agricultural sector”, concludes Rome.
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Mercosur: in Europe, which countries are for or against this free trade agreement?
Under the European treaties, the Commission is the sole negotiator of trade agreements on behalf of the Twenty-Seven. Once a possible text is signed with the Mercosur countries, it will have to obtain its ratification by winning the approval of at least 15 member states representing 65% of the EU population, then by gathering a majority in the European Parliament.
To prevent the adoption of the text, France needs to rally three other countries representing more than 35% of the EU population, a threshold which would be easily crossed with the support of Rome and Warsaw, which has already expressed its opposition to the project “in this form”.
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