Flanagan hits out at 'safeguards' in Mercosur agreement

In advance of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen going to South America to sign off on the Mercosur deal, MEP Luke 'Ming' Flanagan has once again called out what he described as “the hypocrisy and double speak of those in favour of the deal”.

“The so-called safeguard clause that was promoted as being the protector of farmers in Europe has already been shown, before the ink is even dry, to be not worth the paper it is written on,” he asid.

In the run up to the vote in the European Parliament, Flanagan was clear in his opinion that the safeguard clause was never intended to protect farmers.

“The safeguard clause was set up to fail, riddled with vague language and thresholds that are difficult to meet and impossible to quantify. Any measures to protect farmer incomes are reactive, after the event after EU producers have been destroyed and will take months to implement.

“It has been to put in place to give political cover to spineless MEPs to vote in favour of the deal while at the same time saying they have protected farmers. Unfortunately, many MEPs naively bought onto the spin and voted through the safeguard clause thus paving the way for the ratification of Mercosur at the recent Council of Ministers meeting,” he said.

“It is now clear that the safeguard clause is worthless. the Mercosur bloc is quite clear they will not accept any of the stipulations or parameters contained in the safeguard clause,” Flanagan said, citing the view of Paraguay's Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez, who holds the rotating presidency of the South American bloc.

Flanagan said: “In their view they negotiated a deal with the EU, the terms and conditions of the deal are contained in the text of the deal. They reject completely a separate text that they had no input to or knowledge of, in their view bringing in new restriction on import/export qualities would be a breach of the agreement.”

MEPs in the EP have two opportunities to delay and ultimately stop the deal said Mr Flanagan. “Firstly we will vote in plenary on whether to refer the deal to the ECJ (European court of Justice) to see if it is compatible with EU law which would delay it by up to 2 years. Secondly, we will have a final vote on the deal itself, yes or no. Farmers and the wider public should demand that MEPs who they elected, should reflect the views of their constituents and not act as pawns for multinational corporations in these critical votes,” he said.

Concluding Mr Flanagan said: “My position on the deal has been crystal clear from the start we do not want the Mercosur deal, we do not need the Mercosur deal. It is a bad deal for farmers, for the environment, for wider society and for worker rights in both the EU and South America. It defies any logic to be transporting agricultural products thousands of miles around the globe when they can be produced locally in a sustainable manner, supporting local farmers and the wider rural economy.”