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| New EU regulation against deforestation is no protection against increasing deforestation / Attac: Kocher must campaign at tomorrow's Council of Trade Ministers to ensure that Austria's veto is not overturned |
| The EU-Mercosur trade agreement is also on the agenda at tomorrow's meeting of EU trade ministers in Brussels. On the occasion of the meeting, 50 organizations including Attac from 21 countries warn in one open letter warns that the basically welcome EU regulation for deforestation-free supply chains must not be used as an excuse to legitimize the destructive EU-Mercosur agreement. Because a large part of those goods that would be traded more with the agreement - including corn, cane sugar, rice, poultry or bioethanol - are not covered by this regulation. Since the agreement also does not contain any sanctionable rules against deforestation, it would lead to more deforestation despite the regulation and counteract the EU's climate policy," criticizes Attac trade expert Theresa Kofler. EU imports destroy 120.000 hectares of forest every year The current trade between the EU and the Mercosur countries is already partly responsible for deforestation, human rights violations and the climate crisis. “The EU is currently importing raw materials and goods from the Mercosur countries, which annually for the Responsible for clearing 120.000 hectares of forest are – equivalent to a soccer field every three minutes. The agreement would not curb this destruction but rather exacerbate it,” criticizes Kofler. “The EU regulation against deforestation has the potential to represent a real turning point in the fight against forest destruction. But the EU-Mercosur agreement promotes its causes such as industrial animal husbandry or the production of bioethanol. This would also increase the destruction of vital ecosystems such as the Cerrado, the Chaco and the Pantanal,” emphasizes Anne-Sofie Sadolin Henningsen of Forests of the World. Appeal to Kocher: undemocratic "splitting" would overturn Austria's veto On the occasion of tomorrow's EU meeting, Attac Austria is primarily addressing the responsible Economics Minister Martin Kocher: He should speak out unequivocally in Brussels against any attempts by the EU to split this destructive trade agreement. (1) “The Austrian parliament has bound the government to a no to the Mercosur agreement. Kocher must not allow this to be overridden by a procedural trick," demands Kofler. A current legal opinion on behalf of Greenpeace notes that "splitting" the agreement without the consent of the member states would be unlawful. |
| (1) The EU Commission plans to split the agreement into a political and an economic chapter (“splitting”). The economic part should be able to be decided as quickly as possible without the national parliaments having a say – a qualified majority in the EU Council and a simple majority in the EU Parliament should be sufficient for this. |
