Greenpeace: Minister Kocher must clearly reject the EU-Mercosur Pact at the Council of Trade Ministers

2023-05-24 04:00:30

Austria must not accept greenwashing leaflets and anti-democratic voting tricks

Vienna (OTS) – Greenpeace is calling on Economics Minister Martin Kocher to speak out clearly against the EU-Mercosur trade pact at tomorrow’s Council of EU Trade Ministers in Brussels. The agreement endangers both nature and local agriculture. Minister Kocher must also make it clear that Austria will neither agree to a greenwashing leaflet nor to an anti-democratic procedural trick that weakens the position of critical countries such as Austria or France.

“EU-Mercosur means one thing above all: Corporate profits at the expense of nature, the rural population in South America and the farmers in Austria,” says Sebastian Theissing-Matei, agricultural expert at Greenpeace in Austria. That is why the Austrian National Council decided back in 2019 with a large majority that Austria would say “No” to EU-Mercosur. The parliament in the Netherlands and the French government are also very critical of the agreement. Irrespective of this, the EU Commission and EU states such as Sweden and Spain want to push through the EU-Mercosur Pact by mid-July.

The EU Commission is currently negotiating a leaflet with the South American confederation of states Mercosur for the text of the treaty that has already been negotiated. But an anonymous leak shows that the planned additional declaration to the EU-Mercosur trade pact is pure greenwashing. Its sole purpose is to green-up the polluting trade agreement. For example, violations of environmental regulations, which are far too weak anyway, are still not subject to sanctions. The forests of South America, such as the Amazon or the Gran Chaco, are not protected by the supplementary declaration. However, that would be urgently needed, because EU-Mercosur would massively boost trade in environmentally harmful goods: According to a study commissioned by the French government (https://act.gp/3ZrX0yF) alone, the additional beef imports in the Mercosur region would lead to further deforestation of 700,000 hectares. This is an area that is more than twice the size of Burgenland.

Since the EU-Mercosur Pact has to be accepted by all EU states, the EU Commission is also planning an anti-democratic procedural trick. She would like to tactically split the agreement into two parts in such a way that the new trade regulations can already be decided by a majority and come into force. However, a current legal opinion commissioned by Greenpeace shows that the EU Commission needs the approval of the member states for this procedure. Greenpeace sharply criticizes this planned procedure, since it is an obvious attempt to circumvent the resistance of some critical states such as Austria, France or the Netherlands with a procedural trick. But the EU states had agreed to the start of negotiations under the impression that they could still stop the agreement in the end if there was any doubt. “The vast majority of people in Austria reject the EU-Mercosur pact. The Austrian National Council has also taken a clear stance against the agreement. Economics Minister Kocher must not ignore all this and must speak out unequivocally and clearly against EU-Mercosur in Brussels on behalf of Austria,” demands Theissing-Matei.

A Greenpeace summary of the legal opinion can be found here:

The entire legal opinion can be found here: