Overview

• Commissioners endorsed the trade text and urged the 27 EU countries to validate it, with Brussels seeking approval before the end of 2025 under Mercosur’s current presidency.
• Paris said its reservations were heard and that safeguard clauses were accepted, while the government reviews whether a single country can trigger them and apply them provisionally.
• The safeguards will be set out in a separate legal act covering sensitive products such as beef, poultry, sugar and ethanol, which does not require reopening talks with Mercosur partners.
• Germany backs swift ratification to open markets for industry, but European farm unions condemned the move and French groups plan a protest in Brussels on Thursday, as MEP Pascal Canfin readies an effort to pause the file.
• Final approval still requires a qualified majority of member states and a vote in the European Parliament, with any blocking minority needing at least four countries representing 35% of the EU population amid France’s fraught domestic politics.