How Sustainable is the EU-Mercosur Agreement?

In their legal analysis of the sustainability of the EU-Mercosur trade deal, Christina Eckes and Piotr Krajewski identify among other things relevant legal requirements for the EU’s trade policy flowing from the European Court of Human Right’s ruling in KlimaSeniorinnen.

The report was commissioned by Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe.

Executive summary
The EU-Mercosur Agreement has the potential to undermine the EU’s existing commitments to mitigate the climate crisis and stand in the way of green policies adopted in the future. The core issue that emerges from the study is that the EU-Mercosur Agreement is likely to force the EU to contribute to rising global emissions by obliging it to increase trade in emission-intensive goods.

The rebalancing mechanism could create additional difficulties for potential future policies aimed at reducing (trade-related) emissions. In addition, it could be used as an argument against an ambitious implementation of already existing legislation that necessarily requires further steps to be given effect.