BRUSSELS, 18 (EUROPA PRESS)
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, informed the heads of state and government meeting at a summit in Brussels this Thursday that the signing of the free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur will not ultimately be signed this Saturday, but has been postponed until next January, on a date still to be determined.
This was conveyed during the dinner that the leaders dedicated to the geoeconomics and competitiveness of the EU, as informed by European sources to Europa Press, during a European Council which did not have this agreement on the agenda, but whose pressure from France and Italy to delay it forced to address it.
Other community sources specify that in the absence of a precise date, the Europeans’ desire is for the signature to take place “as soon as possible”, at “the beginning” of January.
The Mercosur countries and the European Commission, which carries the voice of the 27 in trade matters, are expected to sign the agreement next Saturday, December 20, on the sidelines of the Foz de Iguazú summit, a few days after a year has passed since the announcement of the end of the negotiations in Montevideo.
However, for this signature to be possible and thus allow its provisional entry into force pending the completion of the full ratification process, Von der Leyen needed a mandate from the Twenty-Seven to be adopted by a qualified majority of the Member States.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s warning that the deal in its current state is still not acceptable to his country has complicated the mandate’s green light, but he has still not added the blocking minority needed to stop it despite reservations from other partners like Poland, Hungary, Austria and Belgium.
Finally, it was the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who warned on Thursday that she considered it premature to sign the agreement, but that she was ready to do so later, when the farmers’ complaints had been answered, which tipped the scales and thwarted Saturday’s signing.
In fact, Lula and Meloni had a telephone conversation this Thursday to confirm that the conditions were not met to carry out the ceremony planned in Iguazú, but to not close the door to the adoption of the trade pact next month.
Among the keys to obtaining support from Rome are the guarantees agreed this week between the Council (governments) and the European Parliament, which provide, among other things, market surveillance and measures to suspend the import of sensitive products if strong distortions are noted for Europeans.
However, these measures have yet to be definitively adopted by European co-legislators and may not come into force before January. A timetable that Macron also recalled upon his arrival at the Brussels summit, asking to wait for the measures to materialize and for other initiatives announced by Brussels, but still to be finalized, to develop, such as the strengthening of customs controls.
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