After 25 years of negotiations and in the midst of Montevideo summitthe European Commission and its president, Ursula Van der Leyen, are willing to sign the Mercosur agreement.
Von der Leyen, former German defense minister, took advantage of the fall of Michel Barnier as chancellor of France to promote the agreement at the summit of presidents in Montevideo that begins this Friday.
The official arrived in Uruguay with the hope of reaching a conclusion, despite the hostility from Emmanuel Macron. On his stopover in San Pablo received an angry call from the French president telling him that “I didn’t agree” as reported by the newspaper Le Figaro.
He result could not be more unfavorable for France. When Michel Barnier’s government fell, the president of the European Commission arrived in Latin America to finalize the agreement, highly criticized in France, with the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay).
“The Mercosur summit to be held this Friday in Montevideo was certainly planned for a long time. It was considered the last opportunity to finally conclude this free trade agreement negotiated for twenty-five years. But Ursula von der Leyen waited until the last moment to report on his trip there, while France was in the midst of a political crisis,” said Le Figaro.
“Landing in Latin America. The goal of the EU-Mercosur agreement is in sight,” the president of the European Commission tweeted during her stopover in São Paulo on Thursday morning, before taking her connection to Montevideo.
Accompanied by the European Commissioner for Trade, Maros Sefcovicits intention is “finalize the last political debates to conclude this unprecedented agreement”underlines a Commission spokesperson. Discussions continued this week at a technical level to reach a compromise on Friday.
Surprise for Macron
Emmanuel Macron was in Saudi Arabia and was caught by surprise. Barnier’s government had fallen and he had to look for a premier before Notre Dame’s reopening next Saturday.
He called Van der Layen in São Paulo to insist that, for France, “it is unacceptable as it is.”
In the Elysée, the feeling of panic was palpable. In addition to the internal institutional crisis in France, a crisis with Brussels. Paris believes that “the president of the Commission runs a serious risk by trying to conclude an agreement without having shared its content with the Member States and without having verified that there would be a qualified majority to ratify it.”
As for former Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who went to Brussels to advise Von der Leyen not to ignore the French position, this is a new humiliation. After this quick trip to Latin America, she must meet with Macron in Paris on Saturday to celebrate, in harmony, the reopening of Notre-Dame.
Farmers’ opposition
French farmers oppose this agreement and have mobilized with the entire country. Macron promised not to sign it.
France has been relatively isolated for months and Austria, more discreetly, opposes this agreement. Most countries, led by Germany, Spain and Sweden, They are in a hurry to finish it.
“This Mercosur summit is probably the last chance to achieve this,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday.
“The president of the Commission has the mandate to do so and, in our opinion, you should use it” he said.
After having suffered against its will the imposition of customs duties on Chinese electric vehicles, Berlin, like most exporting countries, is interested in this new free trade agreement, which would create an area of more than 700 million consumers to diversify their points of sale.
Concluding the Mercosur agreement is on Von der Leyen’s German “to-do list,” says Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, MP-elect (Modem), member of the European Parliament’s Trade Committee. But hasty formalization “runs the risk of undermine credibility and the negotiating capacity of the European Commission.”
France was recently strengthened by Poland’s mobilization and still hopes to convince other countries, including Italy or the Netherlands, to join the No group.
The minority of the blockade
A blocking minority must bring together four countries, representing at least 35% of the European population. France recalls that if the Commission has exclusive competence, delegated by the Member States, to negotiate free trade agreements, has no power to sign them without a mandate from the European Councilwhich brings together the Twenty-Seven. That is why France believes that a formalization in Montevideo this Friday It wouldn’t be the end of the story.
The Commission is proud to have “insisted in the last phases of the negotiations on strengthening aspects linked to climate, sustainable development and the environment.” These are some of the reservations expressed by France.
He feels “optimistic” about being able to “respond to the concerns of our Member States.” Paris also demands guarantees for the agricultural sectors, sanitary control of imports and “mirror” measures on production conditions.
“The total opacity of the method used by the president of the European Commission is very worrying, especially taking into account the significant political tensions surrounding this trade agreement,” judges MEP Pascal Canfin.
Once concluded, the draft agreement must be translated into the languages of the Twenty-seven countries and examined by legal services. It will then have to be ratified by the Council and the European Parliament.
The Commission has not yet communicated the legal form that you want to give him. If you divide the text into two parts, ratification by the parliaments of the 27 Member States will not be necessary.