President Emmanuel Macron on Friday sharply criticized the European Commission for what he described as “bad manners” after it decided to provisionally implement the Mercosur trade agreement, calling the move an unwelcome surprise for France.
Earlier in the day, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the European Union would move ahead with applying the sweeping trade deal with the South American Mercosur bloc while awaiting a ruling from the EU’s top court on its legality.
“For France, this is a surprise — and a bad one,” Macron said in a strongly worded statement, arguing that the decision showed a lack of respect for the European Parliament.
“The European Commission has unilaterally chosen to provisionally apply the agreement with Mercosur, even though the European Parliament has not yet voted on it. In doing so, it is assuming a very heavy responsibility,” he said.
Speaking alongside Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob, Macron vowed to ensure that the safeguards negotiated in recent months are upheld.
“We will be uncompromising when it comes to respecting these rules, especially as Europe has significantly tightened standards for our own producers in recent years,” he said.
“I will never support a deal that is lenient on imports while imposing strict constraints on what we produce at home,” Macron added. “Such an imbalance would be inconsistent for European consumers and damaging to European sovereignty.”
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