STRASBOURG — In a vote that could delay the European Union’s trade deal with Mercosur by up to two years, the European Parliament on Wednesday sent the Latin American accord for a judicial review. By a majority of just 10 votes, MEPs backed a resolution to seek an opinion from the Court of Justice of the EU on whether the texts of the EU-Mercosur agreement comply with the EU treaties. The motion was carried — to applause and cheers from its backers — with 334 votes in favor, 324 against, and 11 abstentions. The Parliament won’t be able to vote on the deal itself until the court has issued its opinion — a process that typically takes between 18 to 24 months.  The delay now raises the question of whether the EU executive will provisionally apply the agreement while waiting for the court to rule — putting the two institutions on a collision course over democratic accountability. The outcome represents a major defeat for the European Commission and countries backing the deal, which want to deepen ties with the Mercosur countries — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — and see the accord as the perfect opportunity to stand strong against U.S. President Donald Trump’s erratic tariffs.  “The more trading partners we have world-wide, the more independent we are. And that is exactly what we need now,” the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a last-minute appeal to lawmakers earlier on Wednesday.  Bernd Lange, the chair of the Parliament’s international trade committee, condemned the outcome of the vote. “Absolutely irresponsible. This is an own goal,” Lange posted on X. “Those against #EU #Mercosur should vote against in consent procedure instead of using delaying tactics under the guise of legal review. Very harmful for our economic interests and standing. Team Europe putting itself offside.” This story has been updated.

The European Union and the Mercosur bloc on Saturday signed their long-awaited trade agreement, sealing one of the world’s biggest free-trade deals after more than 25 years of negotiations and repeated political standoffs. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa attended the ceremony in Asunción, Paraguay, alongside Mercosur leaders from Argentina, Uruguay and host country Paraguay. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a key proponent of the pact, did not attend, delegating representation to his foreign minister. “This agreement sends a strong signal to the world,” von der Leyen said at the signing ceremony. “It reflects a clear and deliberate choice. We choose fair trade over tariffs, we choose a productive, long-term partnership.” The signing marks the culmination of a bruising political battle inside the EU that only cleared its final hurdle last week, when member states backed the agreement by a qualified majority following a flurry of last-minute concessions. France, Poland, Austria, Ireland and Hungary opposed the agreement, while Belgium abstained. Attention now turns to ratification. The deal must still be approved by the European Parliament and national legislatures on both sides of the Atlantic, where opposition — particularly from farming groups — is expected to remain fierce. If fully ratified, the agreement would create a free-trade area covering more than 700 million people across Europe and Latin America. More than 90 percent of tariffs on EU exports would be phased out over time, opening new markets for European manufacturers, especially in industrial sectors. Mercosur countries, meanwhile, would gain greater access to the EU market for agricultural products under strict quota systems designed to protect sensitive European sectors such as beef and poultry. Von der Leyen has framed the deal as a strategic victory, arguing it reinforces rules-based trade at a moment of growing geopolitical fragmentation. EU officials see it as a way to reassert influence in Latin America amid intensifying competition from China and rising uncertainty around U.S. trade policy. But the agreement came at a steep political price.  To win over skeptical governments, the Commission pledged €45 billion in additional support for EU farmers, blunting resistance from countries concerned about cheap imports undercutting domestic producers. French President Emmanuel Macron emerged as one of the pact’s most prominent losers. Despite sustained efforts to block or delay the deal — citing pressure from France’s farming sector — Paris failed to assemble a blocking minority. Italy ultimately backed the agreement after extracting safeguards and funding commitments for its own farmers.

Officially, the EU’s Mercosur trade deal is a defeat for Europe’s farmers. In reality, farm lobbies just can’t stop winning. EU countries endorsed the bloc’s long-delayed agreement with South American nations on Friday, clearing the way for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to fly to Paraguay later this week and close a deal that has haunted Brussels for more than two decades. The agreement is going through despite tractor protests, border blockades and fierce opposition from farm groups and capitals including Paris and Warsaw. But the price of getting Mercosur over the line was steep. In the run-up to the endorsement, Brussels quietly stacked the deck in farmers’ favor. Import safeguards were hardened. Controls tightened. And last week, the Commission unveiled a €45 billion budget maneuver allowing governments to shift more money to farmers under the EU’s next long-term budget. Taken together, the concessions mean Mercosur will enter into force wrapped in protections and paired with a farm budget settlement that leaves the sector stronger than before. “Other sectors complain,” said one Commission official involved in agricultural policy. “Farmers block roads.” The official, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak freely. The blunt assessment captures a familiar reality inside the EU institutions. Farmers may represent a shrinking share of Europe’s economy, but they remain one of its most powerful political constituencies, capable of reshaping trade deals, budgets and reform agendas even when they fail to block them outright. Ultimately, to get Mercosur over the line, Brussels had to back away from plans to loosen farmers’ grip on the EU budget and shift money to other priorities. PRESSURE THAT WORKS The leverage farm leaders wield rests on more than theatrics. Few officials in Brussels dispute that large parts of the sector are under real strain. Farm incomes are volatile. Costs for fuel, fertilizer and feed have surged. Weather has become harder to predict. Working days are long and isolation is common in hollowing rural communities. “I understand the anger,” Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen told POLITICO in an interview last month, as Brussels prepared for tractors to roll into the EU quarter. Christophe Hansen said the Commission had “heard the concerns of farmers” and responded with “strong and unprecedented support measures.” | Photo by Omar Havana/Getty Images Sympathy for farmers runs high across much of Europe, tied not just to economics but to culture, place and identity. That has always made farm subsidies one of the most politically sensitive lines in the EU budget — and one the Commission knew would be hardest to touch. That sensitivity was on display again last week, when agriculture ministers traveled to Brussels for a hastily convened meeting outside the formal calendar, called in response to farmer protests only weeks earlier. Inside, the language was ritualistic. Praise for farmers. Assurances they were being listened to. Repeated references to unprecedented safeguards and financial backing. Hansen summed it up afterward, saying the Commission had “heard the concerns of farmers” and responded with “strong and unprecedented support measures.” REFORM MEETS REALITY This outcome marks a sharp reversal of earlier ambitions inside the Commission. It’s also a reminder of just how high the stakes are when farm subsidies are in play. The Common Agricultural Policy remains the single largest line in the EU budget, absorbing roughly a third of total spending and anchoring a political contract that dates back to the bloc’s postwar foundations. Public money, in exchange for food security and rural stability, has long been one of Europe’s core bargains. That bargain has survived decades of reform. The CAP has been trimmed, greened and made more market-oriented. But its central promise — that farming would be protected — has never disappeared. After von der Leyen’s re-election in 2024, officials quietly explored loosening how tightly farm spending is locked into the EU budget. Draft ideas for the post-2027 budget would have made farm funds more flexible and easier to redirect to priorities such as defense, climate transition or industrial policy. It was a technocrat’s answer to a crowded budget. It did not survive contact with politics. The proposal landed as farm incomes came under pressure from rising costs, climate volatility and disease outbreaks. Tractors returned to Europe’s streets. Agriculture ministers closed ranks, warning of political fallout in rural heartlands. Farm lobbies mobilized in force. Hansen spent much of his first year in office traveling to farms and meeting unions, describing agriculture as a strategic asset and warning of a “convergence of pressures” hitting the sector. Behind closed doors, he fought to keep large chunks of farm funding protected. Tractors park in front of the Arc de Triomphe during a demonstration of the French agricultural union Coordination Rurale (CR) in Paris, France, on January 8, 2026. | Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto via Getty Images Those efforts didn’t calm farmers’ anger. Instead, pressure became constant, feeding into a series of concessions that steadily narrowed the scope for reform. First came assurances that most farm spending would remain ring-fenced in the post-2027 budget. Then came a new rural spending target, designed to funnel more money back into countryside projects. Last week, to get the Mercosur deal over the line, the Commission went further, proposing that farmers get early access to up to €45 billion from a broader cash pot the EU would have been saving for a rainy day. In effect, much of the post-2027 EU farm budget is on track to be sealed at levels approaching today’s, before negotiations have even begun in earnest. LOSING THE TRADE FIGHT, WINNING THE POLITICS The €45 billion now being front-loaded was originally conceived as crisis insurance. After the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Brussels concluded that future EU budgets needed more flexibility to respond quickly to shocks. Money reserved for incremental spending reviews was meant to be the first line of defense in the next crisis. If national capitals embrace the Commission’s proposal, much of that money would be locked in for farmers before the cycle even starts, leaving less for other priority areas. Mercosur became the perfect vehicle for that pressure. Long championed by industrial exporters, the deal turned into shorthand for everything farmers fear about global competition and loss of control. The reality is more uneven. Some EU farmers, particularly in high-end food, wine and dairy, stand to gain from better access to Mercosur markets. Others, especially in beef and poultry, face tougher competition. Yet even there, trade analysts have long dismissed fears of South American goods flooding the EU as exaggerated. But nuance rarely survives a protest banner, and even the unprecedented concessions haven’t stopped farmers from protesting. The EU’s largest farm lobby, Copa-Cogeca, said Friday that the process of getting the Mercosur deal across the line “erodes trust in European governance, democratic processes and parliamentary scrutiny at a time when institutional credibility is already under strain.” The group said it would continue mobilizing farmers. Privately, Commission officials express frustration about the farm lobbies’ hardening demands.  One said that even though Brussels bends over backwards to meet farmers’ demands, every concession still falls short for farm leaders. Another pointed to Commissioner Hansen’s efforts to engage in direct dialogue with farmers across the EU. “And still, they talk as if we had done nothing,” the official said, referring directly to Copa-Cogeca. For now, farm leaders are winning.  Von der Leyen might be boarding that plane to South America. But when she returns to Brussels, they will already be gearing up for the next fight, confident they can lose the trade battle and still bend Europe’s policy in their favor.

Europe’s biggest ever trade deal finally got the nod Friday after 25 years of negotiating.  It took blood, sweat, tears and tortured discussions to get there, but EU countries at last backed the deal with the Mercosur bloc — paving the way to create a free trade area that covers more than 700 million people across Europe and Latin America.  The agreement, which awaits approval from the European Parliament, will eliminate more than 90 percent of tariffs on EU exports. European shoppers will be able to dine on grass-fed beef from the Argentinian pampas. Brazilian drivers will see import duties on German motors come down.  As for the accord’s economic impact, well, that pales in comparison with the epic battles over it: The European Commission estimates it will add €77.6 billion (or 0.05 percent) to the EU economy by 2040.  Like in any deal, there are winners and losers. POLITICO takes you through who is uncorking their Malbec, and who, on the other hand, is crying into the Bordeaux. WINNERS Giorgia Meloni Italy’s prime minister has done it again. Giorgia Meloni saw which way the political winds were blowing and skillfully extracted last-minute concessions for Italian farmers after threatening to throw her weight behind French opposition to the deal.  The end result? In exchange for its support, Rome was able to secure farm market safeguards and promises of fresh agriculture funding from the European Commission — wins that the government can trumpet in front of voters back home. It also means that Meloni has picked the winning side once more, coming off as the team player despite the last-minute holdup. All in all, yet another laurel in Rome’s crown.  The German car industry  Das Auto hasn’t had much reason to cheer of late, but Mercosur finally gives reason to celebrate. Germany’s famed automotive sector will have easier access to consumers in LatAm. Lower tariffs mean, all things being equal, more sales and a boost to the bottom line for companies like Volkswagen and BMW. There are a few catches. Tariffs, now at 35 percent, aren’t coming down all at once. At the behest of Brazil, which hosts an auto industry of its own, the removal of trade barriers will be staggered. Electric vehicles will be given preferential treatment, an area that Europe’s been lagging behind on.  Ursula von der Leyen Mercosur is a bittersweet triumph for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Since shaking hands on the deal with Mercosur leaders more than a year ago, her team has bent over backwards to accommodate the demands of the skeptics and build the all-important qualified majority that finally materialized Friday. Expect a victory lap next week, when the Berlaymont boss travels to Paraguay to sign the agreement. Giorgia Meloni saw which way the political winds were blowing and skillfully extracted last-minute concessions for Italian farmers after threatening to throw her weight behind French opposition to the deal. | Ettore Ferrari/EPA On the international stage, it also helps burnish Brussels’ standing at a time when the bloc looks like a lumbering dinosaur, consistently outmaneuvered by the U.S. and China. A large-scale trade deal shows that the rules-based international order that the EU so cherishes is still alive, even as the U.S. whisked away a South American leader in chains.  But the deal came at a very high cost. Von der Leyen had to promise EU farmers €45 billion in subsidies to win them over, backtracking on efforts to rein in agricultural support in the EU budget and invest more in innovation and growth.   Europe’s farmers  Speaking of farmers, going by the headlines you could be forgiven for thinking that Mercosur is an unmitigated disaster. Surely innumerable tons of South American produce sold at rock-bottom prices are about to drive the hard-working French or Polish plowman off his land, right?  The reality is a little bit more complicated. The deal comes with strict quotas for categories ranging from beef to poultry. In effect, Latin American farmers will be limited to exporting a couple of chicken breasts per European person per year. Meanwhile, the deal recognizes special protections for European producers for specialty products like Italian parmesan or French wine, who stand to benefit from the expanded market. So much for the agri-pocalpyse now.  Mercosur is a bittersweet triumph for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. | Olivier Matthys/EPA Then there’s the matter of the €45 billion of subsidies going into farmers’ pockets, and it’s hard not to conclude that — despite all the tractor protests and manure fights in downtown Brussels — the deal doesn’t smell too bad after all.  LOSERS Emmanuel Macron  There’s been no one high-ranking politician more steadfast in their opposition to the trade agreement than France’s President Emmanuel Macron who, under enormous domestic political pressure, has consistently opposed the deal. It’s no surprise then that France joined Poland, Austria, Ireland and Hungary to unsuccessfully vote against Mercosur.  The former investment banker might be a free-trading capitalist at heart, but he knows well that, domestically, the deal is seen as a knife in the back of long-suffering Gallic growers. Macron, who is burning through prime ministers at rates previously reserved for political basket cases like Italy, has had precious few wins recently. Torpedoing the free trade agreement, or at least delaying it further, would have been proof that the lame-duck French president still had some sway on the European stage.  Surely innumerable tons of South American produce sold at rock-bottom prices are about to drive the hard-working French or Polish plowman off his land, right? | Darek Delmanowicz/EPA Macron made a valiant attempt to rally the troops for a last-minute counterattack, and at one point it looked like he had a good chance to throw a wrench in the works after wooing Italy’s Meloni. That’s all come to nought. After this latest defeat, expect more lambasting of the French president in the national media, as Macron continues his slow-motion tumble down from the Olympian heights of the Élysée Palace.  Donald Trump Coming within days of the U.S. mission to snatch Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and put him on trial in New York, the Mercosur deal finally shows that Europe has no shortage of soft power to work constructively with like-minded partners — if it actually has the wit to make use of it smartly.  Any trade deal should be seen as a win-win proposition for both sides, and that is just not the way U.S. President Donald Trump and his art of the geopolitical shakedown works. It also has the incidental benefit of strengthening his adversaries — including Brazilian President and Mercosur head honcho Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — who showed extraordinary patience as he waited on the EU to get their act together (and nurtured a public bromance with Macron even as the trade talks were deadlocked). China  China has been expanding exports to Latin America, particularly Brazil, during the decades when the EU was negotiating the Mercosur trade deal. The EU-Mercosur deal is an opportunity for Europe to claw back some market share, especially in competitive sectors like automotive, machines and aviation. The deal also strengthens the EU’s hand on staying on top when it comes to direct investments, an area where European companies are still outshining their Chinese competitors. Emmanuel Macron made a valiant attempt to rally the troops for a last-minute counterattack, and at one point it looked like he had a good chance to throw a wrench in the works after wooing Italy’s Meloni. | Pool photo by Ludovic Marin/EPA More politically, China has somewhat succeeded in drawing countries like Brazil away from Western points of view, for instance via the BRICS grouping, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and other developing economies. Because the deal is not only about trade but also creates deeper political cooperation, Lula and his Mercosur counterparts become more closely linked to Europe. The Amazon rainforest  Unfortunately, for the world’s ecosystem, Mercosur means one thing: burn, baby, burn. The pastures that feed Brazil’s herds come at the expense of the nation’s once-sprawling, now-shrinking tropical rainforest. Put simply, more beef for Europe means less trees for the world. It’s not all bad news for the climate. The trade deal does include both mandatory safeguards against illegal deforestation, as well as a commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement for its signatories. 

BRUSSELS ― The EU’s behemoth trade agreement with South America’s Mercosur bloc was — once again — kicked down the road on Thursday, as familiar internal rifts again proved stronger than the push to seal the deal. An eleventh-hour turnaround from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni upended a self-imposed objective of signing the agreement with the Mercosur countries on Dec. 20 — pushing the decision to mid-January instead, POLITICO first reported. The delay shows that after two decades of negotiations and countless turn-arounds, the EU-Mercosur pact, designed to create one of the world’s largest free-trade areas between the EU, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina, continues to be a political minefield in Europe.  Long-standing opposition from France, Poland and Italy, where farming constituencies are influential, has turned the deal into a test of Brussels’ ability to rally allies abroad while holding together a deeply divided bloc.  “Mercosur plays a central role in our trade agreements,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on her way into the leaders summit on Thursday morning, adding it was “of enormous importance we get the green light.” Yet Meloni derailed the carefully laid plan. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the Italian leader promised him on a call Thursday that she would support the deal as soon as she secured the backing of Italy’s farmers. Despite heaping pressure on Europeans in recent days, Lula ended up accepting the delay, the diplomats said. Meloni’s pushback meant there was not enough backing from EU countries for von der Leyen to fly to Brazil this weekend to sign the deal as planned — despite the huge political capital invested on each side in trying to finalize it by the end before Christmas. Even if Rome and Paris come around, the agreement’s troubles are far from over: The deal must still pass through the European Parliament, where opposition is mounting across the political spectrum. For all the warning that an extra delay would be fatal, countries in favor of the deal, such as Germany, were quick to downplay the setback.  “It seems certain that it [the Mercosur deal] will be signed in mid-January,” a senior German official told reporters. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the Italian leader promised him on a call that she would support the deal as soon as she secured the backing of Italy’s farmers. | Ton Molina/Getty Images The mid-January date is important, the official stressed, to get the agreement ratified before the Parliament has a chance to vote on a resolution to send the deal to the Court of Justice of the EU — which would risk freezing its ratification for up to two years. “I hope that our partners in Latin America will have the patience to deal with this tentative and hesitant EU,” said Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee. Hans von der Burchard contributed reporting.

BRUSSELS ―European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU leaders at their summit on Thursday that the Mercosur trade won’t be signed as scheduled on Saturday and instead would wait until next month, two EU diplomats told POLITICO. Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he agreed to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s request to postpone the signature so she can reassure the country’s farmers that they wouldn’t be undercut by cheap poultry and beef, von der Leyen told the group, according to the diplomats. An eleventh-hour turnaround from Meloni threw into disarray a self-imposed objective of signing the agreement this week with the Mercosur countries, which includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Meloni asked the Brazilian leader for more time to back the agreement, which has been 25 years in the making, so she can secure domestic support in favor of the deal.

STRASBOURG — Even if EU countries overcome their gargantuan divisions and sign off on the Mercosur trade agreement this week, a major hurdle awaits in the European Parliament. Defenders of the deal will need to fend off an attempt to freeze its ratification as more than 140 anti-Mercosur lawmakers seek to refer it to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) for an opinion on whether the text complies with the European Union’s founding treaties. The EU’s top court could take up to two years to issue a decision. The holdouts have enough votes to add a motion to the agenda of the Parliament after the deal is signed. The resolution to refer the deal to the CJEU would need a simple majority of votes cast to pass. European lawmakers voted by a wide margin earlier on Tuesday to approve additional safeguard measures to protect European farmers should local markets be destabilized by a glut of cheaper agricultural produce from Mercosur member nations (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay). Out of the 662 lawmakers attending, 431 MEPs voted in favor, 161 against and 70 abstained. “The Parliament has shown that it is possible to move forward responsibly in trade policy without putting our farmers at risk,” Gabriel Mato, the lead lawmaker on the file, told a news conference after the vote. Mato, a Spanish Christian Democrat, said he hoped that EU co-legislators would be able to move forward quickly at a lightning round of interinstitutional talks on Wednesday afternoon. Once there’s an agreement on the safeguard instrument, a vote on the overall deal by EU ambassadors is penciled in for Friday, three diplomats said. Critical here will be whether the safeguards — quick action by the Commission to protect European farmers in the event of a sudden influx of beef, poultry or other food imports from Mercosur countries — are enough to overcome doubts in France and Italy. Only then would Commission President Ursula von der Leyen be able to fly to Brazil on Saturday to finally sign the long-awaited trade accord. Germany, which leads the EU’s pro-Mercosur camp, is warning that another delay would kill the deal. “If there is no possibility of a deal this week then it’s probably going to be dead. We see that the deal already starts unraveling,” warned one German government official, who said the call by holdouts in the Parliament to refer the file to the CJEU could “kick the can down the road.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity. Speaking alongside Mato at the news conference in Strasbourg, Bernd Lange, chair of the Parliament’s trade committee, said the deal would not survive another delay. “If there is not a signature on Dec. 20 this agreement is dead,” the German Social Democrat said. SECOND ATTEMPT For a cross-party group of 145 MEPs belonging to centrist political families — spanning the center-right European People’s Party, the Socialists and Democrats, the liberals of Renew, the Greens and The Left — the safeguards are not enough. They are doubling down on their calls for an in-depth legal review to start in January. “We want to delay the Mercosur adoption process as long as possible,” Manon Aubry, co-chair of The Left group, told POLITCO. Aubry is one of the most vocal critics of the deal, which she said would hurt European farmers and undermine the EU’s climate and environmental standards. The group of MEPs tried in November to refer the deal to the CJEU, but the legislature’s administration said they had to wait until the Council finalized the deal. After a meeting with Greens MEP Saskia Bricmont, Parliament President Roberta Metsola “committed” to schedule a plenary vote on the issue as soon as the Council — the intergovernmental branch of the EU — signs off on the deal, Bricmont told her fellow Mercosur skeptics in an email seen by POLITICO. The meeting followed criticism by MEPs who blamed Metsola personally for blocking the move. Metsola’s team has responded that she followed the advice of the Parliament’s legal service and its interpretation of the rules. During a meeting of political group leaders last week “it was decided to wait for the final agreement, and once this arrives the request for an opinion will be added to the plenary agenda,” Juri Laas, a spokesperson for Metsola, confirmed. If the legal review is approved the Parliament would not be able to vote on the deal itself until the CJEU has issued its opinion. This would typically take between 18 and 24 months. That could push a final Mercosur deal back to the summer of 2027, or even 2028. The court “may, on its own initiative, adjust the pace of the proceedings where institutional or political necessity makes a timely response especially important,” the court’s press service said. That would at least allow time for the Commission to propose new ways to ensure reciprocity, equal climate commitments on both sides, and further ways to protect farmers, said French liberal MEP Jérémy Decerle. “I don’t know if this will bury the agreement, but I hope in any case that it will make the Commission think,” Decerle said. Additional reporting by Nicholas Vinocur.

STRASBOURG — The European Parliament voted Tuesday to tighten additional protections on the EU’s trade agreement with the South American Mercosur bloc, opening the way for talks with member countries that will need to find a rapid compromise to finally get the deal done. Lawmakers voted by a wide margin to approve additional safeguard measures to shield European farmers should local markets be destabilized by a glut of cheaper agricultural produce from Mercosur. Out of the 662 lawmakers attending, 431 MEPs voted in favor, 161 against and 70 abstained. The safeguards represent a key concession for France and Italy to back the overall deal in a separate vote by member countries, and will determine whether European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen can fly to Brazil to sign the controversial deal in Brazil this weekend. A lightning round of talks with EU countries is expected Wednesday afternoon to finalize a common position on the additional instrument. The talks are expected to be prickly, given the time pressure and the fact that the Council of the EU, which represents governments, adopted the original Commission proposal as its position. Final haggling over the agreement with Mercosur — which groups Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — may run into a summit of European leaders being held in Brussels on Thursday and Friday of this week. Overall, lawmakers backed lower thresholds for Brussels to look into unfair competition and to carry out investigations more quickly. Their position would require the Commission to investigate surges of beef or poultry from Mercosur countries as soon as imports rise by more than 5 percent compared to the previous three-year average, and if those imports are priced at least 5 percent below comparable EU products. In the original Commission proposal, both thresholds were set at 10 percent. Further turning the screws on the safeguards, the lawmakers also added a “reciprocity obligation” that would require Mercosur countries to apply EU production standards in order to access the continent’s market of 450 million people. This last tweak is set to be one of the most difficult points in the negotiation with the Council and the Commission.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission has done everything in its power to accommodate the concerns of member countries over the EU’s trade deal with the Latin American Mercosur bloc and get it over the finish line, Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told POLITICO. “I hope we will pass the test this week because we really went to unprecedented lengths to address the concerns which have been presented to us,” Šefčovič said in an interview on Monday.  “Now it’s a matter of credibility, and it’s a matter of being strategic,” he stressed, explaining that the huge trade deal is vital for the European Union at a time of increasingly assertive behavior by China and the United States. “Mercosur very much reflects our ambition to play a strategic role in trade, to confirm that we are the biggest trader on this planet.” The commissioner’s remarks come as time is running short to hold a vote among member countries that would allow Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to fly to Brazil on Dec. 20 for a signing ceremony with the Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. “The last miles are always the most difficult,” Šefčovič added. “But I really hope that we can do it this week because I understand the anxiety on the side of our Latin American partners.”  The vote in the Council of the EU, the bloc’s intergovernmental branch, has still to be scheduled. To pass, it would need to win the support of a qualified majority of 15 member countries representing 65 percent of the bloc’s population. It’s not clear whether France — the EU country most strongly opposed to the deal — can muster a blocking minority. If Paris loses, it would be the first time the EU has concluded a big trade deal against the wishes of a major founding member. France, on Sunday evening, called for the vote to be postponed, widening a rift within the bloc over the controversial pact that has been under negotiation for more than 25 years. Several pro-deal countries warn that the holdup risks killing the trade deal, concerned that further stalling it could embolden opposition in the European Parliament or complicate next steps when Paraguay, which is skeptical toward the agreement, takes over the presidency of the Mercosur bloc from current holder Brazil. Asked whether Brussels had a Plan B if the vote does not take place on time, Šefčovič declined to speculate. He instead put the focus on a separate vote on Tuesday in the European Parliament on additional farm market safeguards proposed by the Commission to address French concerns. “There are still expectations on how much we can advance with some of the measures which are not yet approved, particularly in the European Parliament,” he stressed.  “If you look at the safeguard regulation, we never did anything like this before. It’s the first [time] ever. It’s, I would say, very, very far reaching.” 

BRUSSELS — The French government called on Sunday to postpone a crucial vote by countries on the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, widening a rift within the bloc over the controversial pact. “France is asking for the December deadlines to be pushed back so we can keep working and get the legitimate protections our European agriculture needs,” the office of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Sunday evening. The statement confirmed a POLITICO report on Thursday that Paris was pushing for a delay. It comes within sight of the finish line for the European Union to finally close the agreement with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay that has been in negotiations for over 25 years and would create a common market of over 700 million people. Denmark, which holds the presidency of the Council of the EU, has vowed to hold the vote in time for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to fly to Brazil on Dec. 20 to sign the deal. Several countries warn that the holdup risks ultimately killing the trade deal, concerned that further stalling it could embolden opposition in the European Parliament or complicate next steps when Paraguay, which is skeptical toward the agreement, takes over the presidency of the Mercosur bloc from current holder Brazil. Pro-deal countries, including Germany, Sweden and Spain, argue that France’s concerns have already been accommodated, pointing to proposed additional safeguards designed to protect European farmers in the event of a surge in Latin American beef or poultry imports. But with those safeguards still not finalized, France says it still can’t back the deal, wary that it could enrage the country’s politically powerful farming community. Brussels also announced this month it was planning to strengthen its border controls on food, animal and plant imports. “These advances are still incomplete and must be finalized and implemented in an operational, robust and effective manner in order to produce and appreciate their full effects,” Lecornu’s office said. Denmark, which holds the presidency of the Council of the EU, has vowed to hold the vote in time for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to fly to Brazil on Dec. 20 to sign the deal. | Wagner Meier/Getty Images Despite Denmark’s resolve to hold the vote in time, final talks among EU member countries may not be wrapped up before a summit of European leaders on Thursday and Friday this week. A big farmers’ protest is planned in Brussels on Thursday. The Commission declined to comment.