The Italian government is also opposed to concluding the free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur as it stands. Several Italian media affirmed this Thursday evening, citing “sources of Palazzo Chigi”, seat of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
“By confirming that the deepening of relations with the Mercosur countries must continue to represent a strategic priority for the European Union as well as for Italy, both at the political, economic and industrial level, the Italian government considers that the conditions are not united to subscribe to the current text of the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement, and that signature can only take place under the condition of adequate protection and compensation in the event of imbalances in the agricultural sector », specify these sources, cited by The Press.
Giorgia Meloni thus arbitrates between the opposing positions expressed on November 18 by the Italian Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, unfavorable to the agreement in its current form, and Antonio Tajani, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister, who said he was rather favorable to it. And she is doing it at the very moment when the President of the European Commission is preparing to conclude the agreement politically, at the Mercosur summit in Uruguay where Ursula von der Leyen arrived on Thursday.
Read: Mercosur: Ursula von der Leyen wants to seal the deal
Giorgia Meloni thus comes to support France, whose opposition to the agreement “as is” was repeated again this afternoon by Emmanuel Macron.
Guarantees and compensation
Italy specifies the conditions which would allow it to accept the agreement. “First of all, we must ensure that European standards for 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” , reports La Stampa. “We then need a firm commitment from the Commission to continuously monitor the risk of market disruption and, in this case, to activate a rapid and effective compensation system, equipped with substantial financial resources,” continue the sources cited by the Turin daily.
“The possible Italian green light for the signing of the agreement by the European Union therefore remains conditional on the provision of concrete and effective measures to take into account the concerns of the European agricultural sector. European food sovereignty, as well as the objective benefits due to the strengthening of markets, remains a strategic objective of the Italian government,” they conclude.
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The risk of disavowal from the EU Council
These conditions do not entirely correspond to those demanded by French farmers. The latter – supported for once by NGOs – do not limit themselves to asking for guarantees in terms of border controls or consumer protection, but more radically contest the standards governing agricultural production in the Mercosur countries, sources of their eyes of unfair competition. As for the possible establishment of a system of compensation for damage caused to farmers, it has already been firmly rejected, as insufficient, by all French agricultural unions.
Read: The agreement with Mercosur could be imposed, against France
No matter: “In any case, this creates a blocking minority at European level,” rejoices a French government source. Because “even if the Italian conditions do not call into question the substance of the agreement (negotiated in 2019, editor’s note), in the state of European controls, they are blocking”, explains the same source.
France has in fact already succeeded in joining Poland a few days ago. With Italy's no and an abstention from Belgium – where the Parliament of the Brussels region spoke out against the agreement in 2020, and the government and Parliament of Wallonia took a position against the treaty at the beginning of November 2024-, the Council would not succeed in obtaining the required qualified majority (14 countries bringing together 65% of the votes), calculates the -resigning- French government.
Read: Mercosur: the states for, against and those who still need to be convinced
It remains to be seen how Ursula von der Leyen will do it, which, according to AFP, must hold on Friday a joint press conference with the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, founding members of Mercosur. Legally, nothing prevents it from nevertheless announcing the conclusion of the agreement, taking the political risk of a subsequent disavowal by the Council of the European Union.
