Frankfurt, 21 January 2026 – Commenting on the EU-Parliament's decision to refer the Mercosur agreement to the EU Court of Justice, VDMA’s Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann said:

• ‘The Mercosur Agreement will be significantly delayed by the European Parliament's decision to refer it to the EU Court of Justice. This is completely incomprehensible given Europe's economic and geopolitical situation and complicates the process considerably. For example, it took the Court almost two years to issue an opinion on the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Singapore.’

• ’The rapid entry into force of the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement is essential for the international competitiveness of European industry and mechanical engineering. The current Mercosur tariffs of 11 percent on average make our exports considerably more expensive and thus represent a clear burden for many companies.’

• ‘After more than 25 years of discussion about the Mercosur agreement, further delays are unacceptable. Europe is hindering itself through political blockades. Export-oriented industrial SMEs urgently need EU Free Trade Agreements that actually enter into force.’

VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann.

The VDMA represents 3,500 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and small and medium-sized enterprises. The companies employ a total of around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. It accounts for an estimated turnover of around 870 billion euros in the European Union. Around 80 per cent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing facility in the internal market.