France and Ireland leave the Europa-Mer treaty …

Page 12 in France

From Paris

Those who have celebrated in Argentina the near-final step towards the Mercosur agreement with the European Union will remain without party for some time. Jair Bolsonaro's Brazil, France's internal political emergencies, the looting of the planet and the opportunism of the world powers filled the promised banquet with smoke. The Amazonian fire left the deal in the dark just as the summit of the seven most developed countries on the planet was to begin in the French city of Biarritz (G7, United States, Canada , Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy). and Japan) on the issue of equality and the environment. French President Emmanuel Macron took advantage of Jair Bolsonaro's inflammatory gift to challenge the Mercosur deal. After two decades in the gallows, the signing of this agreement, in June 2019, had seriously worried the French executive. Immediately after the announcement, the government came up against an agricultural world that was lifting the weapons of rejection, especially since a few weeks later, another free trade agreement with Canada, CETA, was approved. The Amazon being a cataclysm and one of the themes of the G7 meeting, namely the protection of the environment, Macron accused Bolsonaro of lying and, immediately after, having opposed the agreement with Le Mercosur continues . The words here have a weight in gold. It is not a question of "doubts", "suspension" or "possible consensus" but clearly and categorically opposition. The French presidency said Friday that "given Brazil's attitude in recent weeks, the President of the Republic can only confirm that President Bolsonaro lied to him at the time of the Osaka G20 cumbe (G20 ). " The presidential palace believes that "President Bolsonaro has decided not to respect his commitments in terms of climate, nor to commit to biodiversity. (…) In these circumstances, France opposes the agreement with Mercosur in its present state. "

It should be remembered that as soon as the signing of the EU / Mercosur agreement was communicated, the French government withdrew from the unregulated reaction of environmentalists and farmers, which was violent. Paris had already conditioned the validation of the agreement in Brazil in compliance with the environmental commitments made at the Osaka summit. However, the pact quickly crossed the great door of French political reality. The agricultural revolt behind the agreement slipped in the run-up to the municipal elections held in France in 2020. The consultation shook under the agricultural anger and the government tried to calm the anger with stylish figures when signing CETA. with Canada Bolsonaro and the leaders of Mercosur have finally offered Western countries the role that was most dear to them: that of good regulators of the international system, promoter of texts of protection and great sponsor of the protection of the environment . The Amazonian fire quickly infiltrated into the G7 summit. On Thursday 22 August, Emmanuel Macron took the floor to describe this as an "international crisis". It is true that the flames could not spread at the worst moment: France has been working for several months in the preparation of the G7 summit to include the theme of the environment on the agenda that will be discussed at Biarritz for three days (24, 25, 26). However, if the ecological issue was so transcendent, there is a bad European taste for not having invited Mercosur to such a summit to better link commitments, especially since one of the G7 members , US President Donald Trump, He has released his country from the Paris climate agreement (signed in November 2015), but he is also very skeptical about these issues. And not to mention Japan and its wild fishing policy, which does not say a word. This does not detract from the legitimacy of the work that France had done before the summit to introduce ecology within the G7. The task is titanic or almost impossible. For example, in order to avoid the role of the G7 summit held in Italy (2017) and after which the United States did not sign the climate chapter of the final declaration, it was agreed that there would be no final text for 2019. Therefore, before the summit, Paris sought to reach a consensus. To do this, in May this year, France drafted the Metz Charter. It was a non-binding declaration that invited the seven member countries to redouble their efforts to preserve biodiversity. The departure was quickly buried by the policy decided by Donald Trump. In Metz, the Americans made it clear that their priority was security and economic growth rather than environmental problems. In addition, the 2019 G7 has emerged as one of the latest short-term opportunities to negotiate a compromise, even minimal. The next G7 and G20 summits will take place on lands indifferent to the eco: the United States and Saudi Arabia. These two countries are purely and irrevocably a scandal: Washington pollutes the entire planet, breaks all agreements on the horizon, while Saudi Arabia, in addition to mbad-producing the most polluting energy , the oil, has for prince Mohammed ben Salmane. , who sent a journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, to kill at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. The report on Turkish justice first and then the considerable and transparent work described in the United Nations document made it possible to dispel any doubt about it.

It looks more and more like a battle between Orwell and Frankenstein. It is precisely in this monumental entanglement that the emanations of the Amazon have ended up leaving behind the agreement with Mercosur that has caused so much political unrest in France. Likewise, smoke is a heavenly gift offered to world powers to hide their own ecological miseries as well as for the involvement of their mega companies in the devastation of the planet. In France, the radical left-wing opposition around Jean-Luc Mélenchon (Insumisa France) has specifically denounced this double standard. Insumisa MEPs and MEPs said that "only Macron could imagine that Bolsonaro was an environmentalist". This sector of the radical left occupied the last position updated by Paris. As MPs write, "This is a victory of the social and environmental fight against free trade.But we would only have to treat it as a hypocrite if, in the same time, Emmanuel Macron does not deal with other ecosidic treaties. "

On the other hand, all of Europe does not share the same macro line. Ireland joined Paris on the grounds that there was no way for "Ireland to support a free trade agreement if Brazil fails to meet its environmental obligations", he said. declared Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. Spain, a country that had worked hard to achieve the result announced in June in Brussels, is far from Macron's position. As revealed by the ears and lips of power in Spain, that is to say the newspaper The countryMadrid considers it "wrong" to mix "the debate on the conservation of the Amazon with a trade pact that will become the most important of the community bloc because of the volume of trade". Berlin moves in the same area. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, through her spokespersons, that the refusal to sign the agreement with Mercosur "is not the appropriate answer". It was known in advance that, if it was signed, the agreement would take another two years to take shape. Ireland and France do not have enough strength to prevent their final signing, although they may delay it by various delaying tactics. It is necessary that 55% of the EU Member States agree that the European Council approves the final signature. This, in principle, would not cause any problems. Yes, however, what happens in the ratification processes of each national parliament, then in the capacity of Paris and Ireland to get new allies in their policy of rejection (if it persists). Jair Bolsonaro and his Mercosur partners saved the G7's top of the paperboard to which the symbolic paternalistic role that he lost was destined and sent back to the West. Bolsonaro has become the horrible character that burns humanity in a conclave of countries that have already burned and destroyed it long ago.