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Some MEPs are calling for the parliament to block the EU-Mercosur deal unless the government honours its environmental commitments.
„We have to keep representatives of the political idiotism in leading positions under pressure. In the case of Brazil, the EU-Mercosur agreement will come back to the European Parliament in a couple of weeks or months. We can not sign this, we can not approve this until Brazil gives guarantees to stop this deforestation which is against the whole of the humanity,” Istvan Ujhelyi, Hungarian Socialist MEP told Euronews.
Environmentalists accuse Brazil’s president of cutting protection to the area deemed crucial to combatting climate change.
Ireland and France have already threatened to block the free trade deal with South American countries, but the European Commission defended the agreement.
„The best tools that we have is the EU-Mercosur agreement which for the first time anchors Brazil into the Paris agreement. It’s actually the first trade agreement which contains binding committment to effectively implement the Paris Accord as well as other multilateral environmental agreements. It’s a way of working with Brazil to push and encourage each other to live up to the committments we have made together in the Paris agreement and work together in other environmental issues. And I think there are also instruments with regards to the enforcement of these committments,” Mina Andreeva, Spokesperson, European Commission told our reporter.
