An Irish MEP has challenged the European Parliament president on a decision to stall referring the EU-Mercosur trade agreement to the European Court of Justice.

The parliament administration previously declared a draft resolution opposing the controversial trade deal inadmissable.

Over 145 MEPs from five political groupings have signed the document calling for a legal opinion from Europe's highest court on the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement (EMPA).

Mercosur

Midlands-North-West MEP Ciaran Mullooly, who is among those who have signed the draft resolution, raised a formal point of order at a meeting of the EU Parliament yesterday evening (Monday, November 24).

The move came after after EU Parliament president Roberta Metsola declined to place the resolution on the agenda of the meeting.

Mullooly said that MEPs have the right to seek such an opinion from the court. He said that the parliament had already used this route before European Council had adopted a position on an international agreement.

“In 2019 we did this. There is a precedent. We have already requested an opinion before the council had their position in an international agreement when the parliament sought an opinion of the European Court of Justice on the EU accession to the Istanbul Convention," he said.

The Independent Ireland MEP called for equal treatment and institutional integrity.

“President, it is clear that both of these cases are international agreements and that one has been treated differently to the other.

"I ask you to note the fact they were both really significant and important agreements," he said.

President Metsola said she was relying on legal advice to the parliament in stalling the resolution.

She said the court referral could go ahead yet in January but Mullooly claimed that the trade deal will have been pushed through by the European Commission before that.