Sustainability impact assessment of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement

Question for written answer  E-001908/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Cindy Franssen (PPE)

On 17 March 2021, the European Ombudsman[1] concluded that the European Commission should have waited for the conclusions of an updated sustainability impact assessment before concluding negotiations on the EU-Mercosur trade agreement[2]. In view of this:

• 1.Does the Commission acknowledge that a mistake was made in concluding the negotiations before the sustainability impact assessment had been finalised?
• 2.Why are the negotiations on the trade agreement with Mercosur the only ones since the introduction of such impact assessments where the Commission did not wait for the final conclusions of the study?
• 3.How will the Commission ensure that due account is taken of the conclusions of the study before the trade agreement is ratified?

• [1] https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/nl/decision/en/139418
• [2] https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/nl/press-release/en/139425