The EU agriculture commission has left the door open to implementing the Mercosur trade deal on a provisional basis while the European Court of Justice decides on it.
Speaking in Dublin on Tuesday, Christophe Hansen confirmed it remained open to the European Commission to implement the agreement, but he added that a decision has not yet been taken.
The EU agriculture commissioner was addressing the Oireachtas EU affairs committee alongside EU budgetary commissioner Piotr Serafin.
“The mandate given by the council is very clear ... the commission has the possibility to go for provisional application, so far the decision has not been taken,” he told Louth Sinn Féin TD Ruairi Ó Murchú.
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He later told Senator Aidan Davitt that the commission would have preferred if the European Parliament had voted to accept or reject the deal, and that its decision to refer the multibillion-euro accord to the EU court was not “helpful”.
That decision threw the future of the agreement into doubt, potentially holding up its ratification by two years. Proponents of Mercosur, which Ireland voted against under intense pressure from the farming lobby, have said they want it implemented on a provisional basis.
Earlier, Hansen argued in favour of the deal in light of concerns about the EU-US trading relationship.
“In these very turbulent political times it is important to not have all the eggs in the same basket,” he said, outlining that there were difficulties in the relationship with the US and China.
Earlier, Serafin told the committee that weaknesses in European defence renders the bloc vulnerable economically and on trade.
He is visiting Dublin as part of his Tour d’Europe, during which he will travel to all member states to engage with national parliaments about the EU’s common budget – the multiannual financial framework (MFF).
Serafin told TDs and Senators the “world around us is changing at a pace we have not seen before, and in directions we cannot fully predict”. He said the EU must prepare to face a more competitive and at times “more hostile global environment”.
As part of a move to become more competitive with world-leading economies, he said a European Competitiveness Fund is being created. Investment in defence, he told the committee, will respect national competences and specific national choices – an implicit reference to Ireland’s policy of military neutrality.
Serafin argued that if Europe is weak in defence, it will be rendered vulnerable in other areas, including economic co-operation and trade.
“Being weak we might be too often confronted with bad offers that we could not refuse.”
He said one of the main tools at Brussels’ disposal is the common budget. To this end, the MFF currently being developed is designed to strengthen Europe’s capacity to act and increase resilience, economically and politically, including in security and defence.
He said the rule of law will remain a core condition for receiving EU funding, arguing that, without it, there cannot be certainty that EU taxpayers’ money is not subject to misuse or fraud.
Referencing Ireland’s upcoming presidency of the EU, he said he trusts Ireland’s negotiating skills, recalling that agreement was secured on the 2014-2020 MFF during the Irish presidency in 2013.
Hansen told the committee that the political and geopolitical context had changed significantly in the last year. He told the committee the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, which funnels billions to Irish farmers in support payments, is a “crucial policy tool”.
He acknowledged that questions exist about the CAP, including that income supports be protected and ring-fenced for farmers, and that it must not depend on unrelated national reforms.
Hansen said €8.16 billion has been secured for Irish farmers in CAP income support, as well as access to money allocated for rural areas in the €450 billion National and Regional Partnership fund.
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