Euractiv | 26 November 2025
EPP Mercosur fast-track bid collapses at plenary
by Alice Bergoënd, Nicoletta Ionta, Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro
The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) on Tuesday beat a hasty retreat from its own gamble to ram through safeguard clauses of the EU-Mercosur deal.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola announced the withdrawal of the EPP’s request for an “urgent procedure” during plenary, closing a 24-hour saga that exposed deep fractures across the legislature.
The safeguards are designed to shield European farmers from a potential surge in imports from agricultural heavyweights Brazil and Argentina. The Commission pitched them as political sweeteners for sceptical capitals in hopes of sealing the long-negotiated deal.
While EU ambassadors backed the text unchanged last week, the Parliament – led by the international trade committee (INTA) – still needs to sign off.
Agriculture MEPs had also formally demanded a say in assessing the legislation meant to protect EU farmers. But in a bid to fast-track approval and lock in the safeguards before the Mercosur deal’s planned December signing, the EPP tried to bypass both committees and send the Commission’s text directly to a plenary vote this week.
The move came as a surprise, as a similar request to speed things up had failed to convince political group leaders only days earlier.
However, Monday’s renewed urgency push even secured unexpected backing from the Socialists. Centre-left leader Iratxe García Pérez of Spain – a staunch supporter of the Mercosur deal – publicly confirmed their support on Tuesday morning.
Yet only a few hours later, the EPP decided to backtrack. Faced with a rebellion from key national delegations – including Poland, France, Bulgaria, Ireland, and Romania – EPP tacticians realised the vote risked blowing up on them, a parliamentary staffer told Euractiv.
Internal divisions
The group “was panicking this morning after realising they did not have their group fully behind them,” and “urgently warned the other groups that the situation was heading for disaster” and that they would withdraw the request, the staffer said.
Mercosur politics in the Parliament often cut along national rather than ideological lines –with poultry and beef powerhouses such as Poland, France or Ireland particularly sensitive to market openings, regardless of party colour.
And these rifts are not limited to the EPP.
Within the Socialists, tensions also emerged. Mercosur supporters were “trying to make the others in the S&D swallow the pill,” another parliamentary staffer source said, noting that French Socialist MEPs did not support to fast-tracking the safeguards.
Yet, according to a third parliamentary source, MEPs above all did not want to be sidestepped.
“Bypassing the Parliament didn’t go down well, even among those in favour of Mercosur,” the source said.
The safeguards should now be examined by INTA, with a vote foreseen on 8 December. Agriculture MEPs, for their part, still intend to make their voice heard through an opinion letter, with a draft obtained by Euractiv.
