The European Parliament voted on Wednesday to seek a legal opinion from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on whether the EU–Mercosur agreement is compatible with the EU Treaties, in a razor-thin vote that highlighted deep divisions over the controversial trade deal.
MEPs adopted the resolution by 334 votes in favour, 324 against, with 11 abstentions. The decision means the CJEU will examine the legal basis of both the EU–Mercosur Partnership Agreement (EMPA) and the interim trade agreement (iTA), as well as their compliance with EU primary law.
Parliament said it will continue scrutinizing the text of the agreements while awaiting the court’s opinion, but stressed that MEPs will only be able to decide whether to give their consent to the deal after the CJEU delivers its assessment.
The vote was welcomed by opponents of the agreement, who described it as an important step for European farmers ahead of further parliamentary battles. In a statement posted on social media, Hungarian MEP Csaba Dömötör said the decision represented an ‘important interim victory for farmers ahead of tomorrow’s decisive vote,’ adding: ‘Without the votes of Fidesz MEPs, this motion would not have passed.’
Dömötör also highlighted the role of the Patriots for Europe group in driving resistance to the deal, arguing that ‘opposition to the Mercosur deal has been driven throughout by the Patriots’, while accusing an ‘EPP–Left grand coalition’ of pushing the agreement forward. He further criticized European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber, saying he was still arguing in favour of a deal ‘that harms European farmers’ as recently as Tuesday.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said ahead of the vote that ‘Hungary will never approve the Mercosur trade agreement as long as a national government remains in office.’ The deal has also sparked debate in Hungarian political discourse, with opposition leader Péter Magyar and the Tisza party claiming that Orbán and his party do not stand by farmers and were unable to prevent the agreement from moving forward. However, contradicting Magyar’s claim, it was the EPP—of which Tisza is a member—that voted in favour of the agreement from the outset.
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