Farmers to mobilise in Strasbourg to request CJEU opinion on EU-Mercosur: European democracy and role of European Parliament must be respected

Regardless of their position, MEPs must not allow the Commission to bypass democracy, which could legitimize future unilateral deals (like those with the US and Morocco, without consulting the Parliament). MEPs have been denied the right to vote on this resolution in Strasbourg without sound legal grounds, on the basis that the Council must request Parliament's consent on the treaty before a vote can happen. This is another serious attack on the Parliament’s prerogatives and after being excluded from the negotiations for 25 years, the Parliament must reclaim its role of overseeing these processes. To approve the largest Free Trade Agreement, with major consequences on farmers, without a proper legal assessment would set a dangerous precedent, weaken the position of the Parliament and grant the Commission the authority to set its own rules.

For ECVC, there are clear ground on which to reject the legality of this FTA:

Legal basis: In 1999 and 2018, the European Council mandated the Commission to negotiate an EU-Mercosur association agreement covering political, trade, social, cultural, and security cooperation, areas that are not all within EU competence. Such agreements require ratification by national parliaments. In September, the Commission formalised a split of said agreement: the Interim Trade Agreement (ITA), limited to trade, and the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement (EMPA), combining trade and investment with political and cooperation pillars. The Commission proposed a legal basis requiring only a qualified majority in the Council, with no need for national parliamentary ratification for either agreement. Such option to split the association agreement in order to fast-track the signature and conclusion of the ITA and EMPA has clearly never been envisaged by the Council, as recognised by experts in EU and Environmental Law and choosing the incorrect legal basis could lead to the act being nullified.[1]

Rebalancing mechanism: This mechanism allows the parties to the agreement to request compensation if a measure applied by the other party nullifies or substantially impairs a benefit to which it is entitled, even if that measure is consistent with the agreement and WTO rules. EU law obliges institutions to achieve a “high level of protection” for farmers, workers, patients, consumers or the environment. By restricting the capacity of the EU to impose social, health or environmental regulation, such level of protection will not be achieved.

Precautionary principle: It will be more difficult to take sanitary and phytosanitary measures under the precautionary principle of the EU-Mercosur agreement than under the one embodied in the EU treaties. Consequently, EU products could be subject to more prohibitive precautionary measures under the European treaties than products imported from Mercosur, exacerbating unfair competition. In accordance with article 218(11)TFEU, these issues justify that the European Parliament request the opinion of the CJEU. The resolution arrives in a context marked by Commission’s intentionally chaotic communication regarding the treaty’s democratic process, marked by concealed and changeable Council vote dates to limit democratic opposition.

Today, small and medium-scale farmers feel threatened by the Commission's decisions, including to sign new free trade agreements, cut the agricultural budget in the MFF and the CAP post-2027 proposals; we are being abandoned in the face of current challenges for farms. These decisions must be discussed democratically to avoid a total loss of confidence in the integrity of the European institutions.

Notes for editor

Join ECVC farmers from 11:00-15:00 in Strasbourg, in front of the European Parliament, and read more below:

- ECVC document on the impact of the EU-Mercosur FTA on farmers
-ECVC document on New bilateral safeguard clauses on EU-Mercosur FTA: an ineffective technical proposal against the structural and localised impact of the treaty
-Working paper 2025/4. EU-Mercosur Trade and Partnership Agreements: are they compatible with the EU founding treaties?

[1] 1 https://tradevenvironment.eu/index.php/2025/11/07/working-paper-2025-4-eu-mercosur-trade-and-partnership-agreements-are-they-compatible-with-the-eu-founding-treaties/