Fratelli d'Italia's dossier: postpone the signing of the EU-Mercosur agreement, indispensable reciprocity to protect agriculture
Italy does not have an 'extremist no' position like France, but is a 'conditional yes'
Signing the EU-Mercosur agreement is 'premature'. A confidential dossier from the Fratelli d'Italia study centre distributed to deputies and senators puts in black and white the reasons why Italy is calling for the postponement of the initialling, currently scheduled for Saturday.
'A condition that is indispensable for us and which, at present, is not yet guaranteed by the overall structure of the agreement,' the document explains, 'is reciprocity. European farmers are subject to many rules and it is necessary that products entering from abroad within the framework of such agreements - all of them, not only with Mercosur - must comply with the same rules for several reasons: both so as not to backtrack on consumer protection, for which these rules were created, and so as not to create discrimination between European products (which we should protect) and foreign ones'.
The request for postponement made by the premier, Giorgia Meloni, in a face-to-face meeting after the European leaders' dinner in Berlin on Monday (see Wednesday's Il Sole 24 Ore), does not derive from 'an overall opposition to the text', but from 'very specific issues'. Italy, it is explained, is an exporting state and the executive is well aware of the advantages of free trade agreements, 'but it is equally aware that those advantages cannot be benefits if they also bring with them significant penalties for certain sectors'.
The measures introduced in the agreement at Italy's input, according to the dossier, are noteworthy steps forward: a specific safeguard mechanism, an adequate compensation fund to be drawn on in case of need, and a significant strengthening of phytosanitary entry controls. These are 'measures that have been presented, but not fully finalised'. For example, the arrival of 'meat from animals bred with the use of antibiotics or with feed or fodder cultivated with plant protection products that we consider harmful to animal and human health, as well as the entry of agricultural products cultivated with plant protection products whose use is not permitted in Europe' must be avoided at all costs.
Hence the 'no' to immediate signature. Although, it specifies, unlike France, 'Italy does not have an extremist 'no' position, but is leaning towards a conditional 'yes'. Conditioned above all on the inclusion of the principle of reciprocity with mirror clauses, to guarantee that agricultural world that represents a central component of our economy, society and productive fabric'.
