An Irish MEP has welcomed the withdrawal of an "urgent" motion to bring forward a vote in the European Parliament on safeguard measures to protect farmers from the impact of the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement.

Midlands-North-West MEP Barry Cowen said that the motion to request an urgent procedure, which was proposed by the European People's Party (EPP), was "rushed" and that its withdrawal will allow time for the safeguards to be amended.

The Fianna Fáil MEP said that the last-minute withdrawal of the vote at the full session of the parliament in Strasbourg today (Tuesday, November 25) "restores proper parliamentary scrutiny and ensures Irish farmers' concerns will now be fully addressed".

He said that the urgent procedure would have accelerated the vote on the safeguard mechanisms to this week and "curtailed the parliament's role in examining and amending the text".

"It had become clear that the proposal [to bring the vote forward] no longer had majority support, reflecting widespread concern that rushing the process would undermine confidence in the protections being offered to farmers," Cowen said.

"As a result, the safeguard regulation will now return to the parliament's international trade committee, with the agriculture committee, providing a formal opinion," Cowen explained.

The MEP is a member of both committees (as a substitute member of the former committee and full member of the latter).

According to Cowen, the safeguards proposed by the European Commission "represents an unprecedented step" to protect agriculture from the Mercosur deal, but that several clarifications are required in writing.

Particularly, he said that the threshold for tiggering the safeguards - currently set out in the safeguards proposal as a 10% increase in imports of the products concerned or a 10% decrease in the price of the same product within the EU - should not be "rigid", and that price declines of between 7% and 9% should also trigger intervention.

Cowen said: "This withdrawal is the right outcome. Parliament was being asked to rush through a safeguard regulation that is central to the future of Irish and European agriculture.

"A fast-tracked vote this week would have reduced oversight, suppressed amendments and, crucially, undermined trust among farmers," he claimed.

"Today’s outcome gives parliament the time it needs to secure full transparency, full clarity, and the strongest possible protections for the people I was elected to represent," Cowen said.

“If there was a vote in the morning on the Mercosur trade deal, I would vote against it. However, in the meantime, facing the real possibility of the agreement being passed via [qualified majority] without Irish support, I have a duty and a mandate to secure the best compensatory package for Irish farmers possible," the MEP added.