The horizon is clarified for the UE-Mercosur agreement. The vast trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur South American countries has taken a new stage: this Wednesday, the European Commission officially presented the text to the Member States, initiating the final sprint of a chaotic career began in the late 1990s. Brussels hopes to see the entry into force of its commercial provisions at the end of 2025.
Until then, the road is not yet completely clear. With its official name “EU-Mercosur Association Agreement (APEM), the transatlantic treaty has now passed in the hands of the European Union Council, which represents the Member States, to the task of authorizing or rejecting its signature. Broader than a simple free trade agreement, this decision would have a theoretically required animity within the EU Council and a single negative would have been sufficient to block the path to it.
However, the European Commission has chosen to divide the agreement into two separate legal instruments to accelerate its entry into force. The largest, most important commercial provisions were grouped by Brussels in an interim commercial agreement (ATI). To be approved, the latter requires only a majority vote qualified by the EU Council because common commercial policy is the result of the exclusive skills of the European Union.
Going through Strasbourg
France, still reluctant to the text in its current state, only has a small room so that the maneuver opposes the ATI. Paris will have to establish a locking minority to block the process, joining at least four member states that represent at least 35% of the EU population. In addition to Poland, which reiterated its rejection, France seems isolated in the former continent against the fierce defenders of the commercial agreement, Germany and Spain in mind.
In the probable case of a green light of the EU council, the ATI will be transmitted to the European Parliament that will also have to give its approval during a plenary session, and perhaps a new opportunity to be seized for the opponents of the EU-Mercosur agreement. In Strasbourg, the situation is a bit more confused than in Brussels: the MEPs are torn by national imperatives within the two main political groups, which makes the perspective of the majority in their favor.
The French and Poles Eurodiputados of the European Popular Party (EPP), to the right of the hemicycle, expressed their disagreement in a letter addressed to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, however, of the same political group, reports. Political. Within the Social Democratic Group (S&D), the line of French and Spaniards, Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, is one of the convinced promoters of the Mercosur treaty, is far from aligning.
At the end of the year?
If the text successfully passes the stage of the European Parliament, the EU council will officially authorize the signing of the interim agreement. All commercial provisions of APEM, such as the deletions and reductions of customs duties, even in agricultural matters, must be applied by the Member States, including France, reluctant or not there. Brussels hopes to achieve this in the coming months, provided that the Brazilian president Lula occupies the rotary presidency of Mercosur.
The EU-Mercosur agreement in its entirety, will still have to wait a few years before materializing: it will have to be ratified by the 39 national rooms and parliaments of the EU to enter into force. In addition to the commercial component, APEM also houses a political pillar and a cooperation pillar, which fall under the shared skills between the EU and its member states. When it is definitively approved, the Apem will take the place of the provisional agreement that will be repealed.
But political disorders promise to be numerous, such as the Free Trade Agreement with Canada (CETA), which has not yet crossed all legislative obstacles since its provisional entry in force in 2019.
Source: BFM TV
