McNamara says EU decision on Mercosur 'beyond frustrating'

The ICSA president Sean McNamara has said the European Commission’s decision to provisionally apply the Mercosur trade deal, before the European Parliament has voted and while a legal review is pending, is beyond frustrating.

“We campaigned long and hard for a legal review of this deal because there are serious questions around it. A majority of MEPs supported that call. So it is very hard to accept that the commission would now press ahead as if that vote carried no weight,” he said.

Mr McNamara was reacting to the announcement today by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the deal will be applied provisionally.

“If there are legal questions before the European Court of Justice, the reasonable course of action is to wait. That is simply respecting the process.

"This is about respect for parliament and respect for due process. Describing it as provisional does not change the reality that once it is applied, the whole thing is effectively a done deal.”

He said ICSA want provisional application to be stopped until the legal review is complete and the European Parliament has voted.

“If the commission is determined to plough ahead regardless, then beef and poultry must be taken out of this agreement in full. You cannot demand world-leading standards from European producers on climate, environment and animal welfare, and at the same time ask them to compete with imports produced to entirely different rules.

"Nor can you tell consumers that certain production practices are not acceptable in Europe, only to allow food produced to those standards onto supermarket shelves. It is complete hypocrisy.”

Concluding, Mr McNamara said: “What angers farmers most is the sense that their concerns, and the clear vote of parliament, are simply being brushed aside.

"We were told there would be scrutiny. We were told there would be a legal examination. Yet the process moves on regardless. That sends a very poor signal about how seriously both farmers and Parliament are being taken, and it’s simply not good enough.”