After Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared at the end of November that he would not accept the project “in this form”Italy joined the front of the refusal of the free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur on Thursday December 5, 2024: “The conditions are not met to subscribe to the current text”say government sources.
Rome believes that “the signing can take place only on the condition that adequate protections and compensations in the event of imbalances for the agricultural sector” are put in place. Austria and the Netherlands have also already expressed reluctance.
“Unacceptable as it stands”
To prevent the adoption of the text, France needs to rally three other countries representing more than 35% of the EU population. The threshold would be largely crossed with the support of Rome and Warsaw.
Under the European treaties, the European Commission is the sole negotiator of trade agreements on behalf of the Twenty-Seven. But any text signed with Mercosur countries must still obtain ratification by winning the approval of at least 15 member states representing 65% of the EU population, then mustering a majority in the European Parliament.
A blocking minority can also stop any ratification. A fight that France is waging: Emmanuel Macron, in a telephone call Thursday morning, “returns” to Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, that the draft trade agreement was “unacceptable as it stands”affirmed the Élysée. “We will continue to tirelessly defend our agricultural sovereignty”added the French presidency on
Germany and Spain are for
Ursula von der Leyen, however, intends to move the agreement forward. She is on Friday alongside the presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, gathered for the 65e summit of the Latin American bloc, where a new stage in the discussions started in 1999 could be sealed.
-Under the influence of Brazil on the South American side, and Germany and Spain on the European side, the two blocs want to finalize the discussions quickly. They fear the arrival in January of Donald Trump at the White House and his threats of increasing customs duties in all directions.
“The finish line is in sight”
“We have reached a common text of agreement”only missing “minimal details”declared Thursday the Uruguayan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Omar Paganini, after a meeting with the new European Commissioner for Trade, Maros Sefcovic. He says he hopes that “good news” of an agreement could be announced on Friday following the meeting of heads of state.
Ursula von der Leyen, who before her arrival in Uruguay on Thursday had said on “the finish line of the EU-Mercosur agreement is in sight. Let’s work together, let’s get through it”is due to give a joint press conference with presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Javier Milei, Luis Lacalle Pou and Santiago Peña.
But in Paris, a diplomatic source argued that“at this stage, it is a finalization of the discussions at the level of the negotiators”, “this is neither the signing nor the conclusion of the agreement”. “So this is not the end of the story”.
