After 26 years of negotiations, the EU is now on track to approve the trade agreement with the South American Mercosur countries. This is clear after a qualified majority of EU countries gave the green light to the agreement at a meeting of the EU countries' permanent representatives on Friday.
Now a formal approval via written procedure awaits. It is expected to be completed on Friday evening, according to an EU diplomat. This means that the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, may be able to travel to South America as early as next week to sign the agreement.
It was ultimately Italy that had the decisive vote due to the EU's special rules for what constitutes a qualified majority. The rules require that 15 of the EU's 27 member states support the proposal. At the same time, at least the 15 countries must together represent 65 percent of the EU's population.
Since large EU countries such as France and Poland have made it clear that they will say no, Italy was decisive. At the EU summit in December, Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, initially stated that she wanted a few more weeks to ensure more protection for European agriculture. This is the result of the work that has now led Italy to give the green light.
Market with over 700 million consumers
The South American trade bloc Mercosur consists of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The trade agreement will thus open up a total market of over 700 million consumers divided between the four countries and the EU. The hope is that it can open up increased exports and thus earnings for Europe.
However, the agreement has been met with extensive demonstrations from farmers in, among others, France, Poland and Belgium.
In light of this, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that France will vote against the agreement. - France is positive about international trade, but the EU-Mercosur agreement is an agreement from another time, which has been negotiated for far too long on far too outdated a basis, Macron wrote on X on Thursday.
Macron also referred to the fact that the French parliament has unanimously rejected the agreement. However, France's opposition was not enough to stop the trade agreement.
The agreement has taken on special significance after US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on European goods, which has increased the EU's ambitions to find new markets so that the EU can become more independent from the US.
/ritzau/
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