METROMadam President of the European Commission, in the coming weeks you are preparing to present the association agreement between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur for approval by the Council and the European Parliament. We, the French parliamentarians in the Senate, the National Assembly and the European Parliament, want to remind you of the very broad and transpartisan opposition that our assemblies have formally expressed to this agreement.
The resolutions adopted in the National Assembly in 2023 and in the Senate in 2024 stipulate that the democratic, economic, environmental and social conditions for the celebration and adoption of an agreement with Mercosur are not met. Our assemblies remember that France set three conditions to sign the agreement, namely: not increasing imported deforestation in the EU, adapting the agreement to the Paris climate agreement (2015) and introducing mirror measures in health and environmental matters.
Obviously these conditions are not met. Since the start of EU-Mercosur negotiations in 1999, an area equivalent to the Iberian Peninsula has been deforested in the Amazon. Now it is the neighboring Cerrado that is seriously affected. We know that this deforestation, which contributes greatly to greenhouse gas emissions and the collapse of biodiversity, is mainly related to the change in land use for livestock farming and soy production. Therefore, this trade agreement is incompatible with the Paris Agreement.
Furthermore, the amount of pesticides spread is 6 kilos per hectare (kg/ha) in Brazil, compared to 3.6 kg/ha in France. And of the half a thousand pesticides used in Brazil or Argentina, almost 150 are banned in Europe because they are dangerous! Likewise, Mercosur countries still widely use livestock growth promoters, such as antibiotics, which are also banned in Europe. This gap in environmental, health and animal welfare standards presents a serious health risk to European consumers.
It also constitutes unfair competition for our agricultural producers, while the EU sets high ambitions in this area and imposes strict limitations on production.
“Guilty naivety”
This free trade agreement, which provides for the opening of additional quotas, without customs duties or at reduced rates, for beef, poultry, corn, sugar and ethanol, would inevitably be to the detriment of producers and European livestock farmers, in a context of distortions. of competition and “guilty naivety”with the absence of controls on imported products. Certain European agricultural sectors would be seriously weakened.
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