The European Parliament adopted by 284 votes to 87 with 7 abstentions a resolution on trade negotiations between the EU and Mercosur.

The resolution was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ALDE, and ECR groups.

It stresses the economic and political importance of the EU-Mercosur negotiations, launched in 2010 with the objective of arriving at a balanced, fair, ambitious, comprehensive and mutually beneficial agreement in all sectors covered by the agreement. Since 2010, nine negotiating rounds have taken place. Members note the progress made in the past two years on the normative part of the trade pillar of the agreement, but regret the slow pace of the negotiations and the lack of any substantial progress to date. They believe that, for such negotiations to be successful, both sides must approach the talks in a spirit of openness and mutual trust and, this being so, Parliament deplores the protectionist measures on trade and investment taken by some Mercosur countries in recent months. It highlights the need to create a stable framework for better investment protection.

Members recall that EU-Mercosur trade represents nearly as much as EU trade with the rest of Latin America taken together. The EU is Mercosur's largest trading partner and the largest investor in Mercosur, and Mercosur ranks eighth among EU trading partners. Members call for closer cooperation between the EU and Mercosur, and believe that deeper integration of the European and Mercosur economies will be beneficial to both sides.

Parliament takes the view that the next EU-Mercosur Ministerial Meeting to be held at the end of January 2013 in parallel with the CELAC-EU Summit in Santiago, Chile, should be seen as a major opportunity to make clear and significant political commitments and to progress further in the negotiations for this interregional agreement involving 800 million citizens.

In this context, Parliament urges both parties to bring sufficient political motivation and significant political backing to the table, so as to proceed with the exchange of sufficiently ambitious market access offers on goods, services, investments and the other chapters of the trade pillar of the agreement.

It reiterates the importance of including respect for democratic principles, fundamental and human rights and the rule of law as well as environmental and social standards in all trade agreements concluded between the EU and third countries, in order to achieve greater coherence in external actions, both reflecting the EU's economic interests and promoting its fundamental values.