At a Berlin press briefing this week Green Party co-chair Franziska Brantner appeared visibly uncomfortable. She had intended to address international tensions — Greenland, Ukraine and US President Donald Trump — but journalists repeatedly turned the conversation to the EU’s trade agreement with Mercosur and her party’s role in blocking its ratification.
The Mercosur accord, negotiated over more than two decades with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, was billed as a multilateral boost to transatlantic trade and an antidote to growing nationalism. Instead, last week its entry into force was stalled again in the European Parliament after a majority of German Green MEPs voted to refer the already-negotiated pact to the European Court of Justice for further review. Brantner had made a late appeal to approve the deal, but eight of the Green Party’s 11 German MEPs backed the referral; they later said the move had been a mistake.
Economists warn that a legal review could delay implementation by years. Brantner pointed to a possible workaround: if a Mercosur country ratifies the agreement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen could implement parts of the deal on the EU side without waiting for full ratification across the bloc.
The political fallout for the Greens goes beyond timetable concerns. In Brussels the Green MEPs ended up voting alongside right-wing populists and extremists to send the accord to the court, a development that clashes with the party’s declared policy of keeping a strict distance from the far right. Last year Greens criticised Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU for cooperating with Alternative for Germany in the Bundestag; opponents argue that principle was compromised in the European Parliament.
Environmental issues have long fueled Green scepticism. The agreement would create one of the world’s largest free-trade zones, with Europe exporting cars and chemicals and Mercosur countries supplying agricultural goods and raw materials. Greens feared the pact could weaken environmental safeguards and put German farmers at a competitive disadvantage.
The incident has intensified criticism of the party leadership in Berlin for poor coordination with Green MEPs in Brussels. To limit the damage, the Greens have highlighted support for other trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and pledged better internal coordination on future deals. Co-leader Felix Banaszak has assured that Greens in the European Parliament will not again derail a trade agreement the way the India deal was handled.
This article was originally written in German.