Opinion on ‘Splitting’ in the EU-Mercosur Agreement

The European Commission is currently considering options regarding the "legal basis" of the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement. On the table is a procedural trick to circumvent the resistance of a number of EU Member States and their parliaments: The so-called "splitting". Since the EU-Mercosur Agreement is conceived as an association agreement, it can currently only be adopted if all EU Member States agree unanimously, or in other words: At present, each Member State has a right of veto. In addition, national and/or regional parliaments in the EU also have the right to approve or reject the agreement as part of the national ratification process.

The legal opinion confirms that the European Commission, by proposing to adopt a shared or provisional free trade agreement, would carry out a manoeuvre with a significant negative impact on the democratic process. In our view, such a maneuver aims to force a swift entry into force of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, despite widespread concerns about the negative environmental and social impacts. This approach would have the only effect of silencing public debate and suppressing the resistance of some governments and national and/or regional parliaments: Parliaments in Austria, the Netherlands, Wallonia and the Brussels region, as well as the French government, have already expressed their opposition to the EU-Mercosur trade agreement. However, EU Member States can prevent attempts by the EU Commission to violate the democratic process of agreeing to trade agreements.

Further information on the EU-Mercosur Agreement can be found here.