Sinn Féin MEPs have urged the European Parliament’s international trade committee to "oppose any attempt" to provisionally apply the EU-Mercosur deal.

MEPs Lynn Boylan and Kathleen Funchion said such a move "would breach the interinstitutional agreement" as they urged for it be "opposed at every level".

Last week, the majority of MEPs at the European Parliament in Strasbourg voted in favour of a resolution requesting legal advice from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to see if the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement and Interim Trade Agreement are compliant with the Treaties of the EU.

This effectively delays the formal ratification of the deal until the legal advice is provided, with some sources stating that it could take 18-24 months.

Mercosur

The European Council, which is made up of government representatives from each member state, voted in favour of the trade deal with the South American countries of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina earlier this month.

This gave commission president Ursula von der Leyen the go-ahead to travel to South America, to formally sign the partnership agreement with the Mercosur countries.

However, the agreement still has to be passed by the European Parliament to be implemented in full, a process that had been expected to take place in April or May of this year.

While the European Commission does have the legal framework to provisionally apply the terms of the trade deal in the meantime, there has always been an institutional arrangement that it would await parliament approval before implementing such deals.

However, now with such a delay expected, it's not yet known if the European Commission will go ahead and provisionally apply the terms of the trade deal.

Delay

MEP Lynn Boylan said the "successful blocking" of the Mercosur deal last week was a "significant victory for our climate, public health and for Irish farmers".

“By referring the deal to the ECJ, it has likely delayed any further moves on the deal by at least two years.

“The Left Group [in the EU Parliament] has written to the trade committee and urged them to oppose any attempts to do this, as it would breach the interinstitutional agreement.

“As the Left Group's coordinator for the trade committee, I will be making this point very strongly in our meeting next week."

Written to trade committee

MEP Kathleen Funchion said while the ECJ's opinion is awaited, it is "vital" that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen "does not attempt to provisionally apply this deal".

“We have written to the trade committee calling for any such attempts to be opposed," Funchion said.

"I am urging the Irish government and their MEPs to join us and resist any move to apply Mercosur within their political groups."