EU-Mercosur agreement status and timeline

Current status

This is the section we revise whenever a step below is completed. Last revised: 7 September 2026.

This page tracks EU-Mercosur ratification status: what is legally in force in Brazil today, and what is not. As of 7 September 2026, the agreement is split in two. The Interim Trade Agreement, which sets the tariff schedule, has applied provisionally since 1 May 2026, following a Brazilian decree issued on 28 April 2026. The wider EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement, signed in Asunción on 17 January 2026, is not ratified. It still needs an opinion from the Court of Justice of the EU and ratification by every EU member state. No date is set for either step.

Timeline of what has happened

The dates below are drawn from the Council of the EU's decisions, the Official Journal, and the Brazilian decree that brought the trade part into domestic law.

Date	What happened
6 December 2024	Political conclusion of the EU-Mercosur negotiations.
9 January 2026	The Council of the EU approves signature of the agreement, through two separate decisions. Decision (EU) 2026/183 covers the Interim Trade Agreement (CELEX 32026D0183, agreement text CELEX 22026A00184). Decision (EU) 2026/185 covers the full EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement (CELEX 32026D0185, agreement text CELEX 22026A00186). France, Poland, Austria, Hungary and Ireland vote against. Belgium abstains.
17 January 2026	The agreement is signed in Asunción, Paraguay.
21 January 2026	The European Parliament votes to ask the Court of Justice of the EU for an opinion on the agreement. The result is 334 in favour, 324 against, 11 abstentions.
28 April 2026	Brazil issues Decreto nº 12.953/2026, incorporating the trade part of the agreement into domestic law.
1 May 2026	The Interim Trade Agreement begins applying provisionally in Brazil. The tariff schedule takes effect from this date.

Two things are worth reading directly out of this table rather than assuming. First, the Council issued two decisions on the same day, one for the Interim Trade Agreement and one for the full Partnership Agreement, and they are numbered and catalogued separately (CELEX 32026D0183 and CELEX 32026D0185). Second, the signature on 17 January 2026 and the European Parliament's referral to the Court of Justice four days later both predate Brazil's implementing decree by more than three months. The trade part did not begin applying until Brazil had issued its own decree and the date set for provisional application had arrived.

What still has to happen

Two steps are still open, and both concern the Partnership Agreement, not the trade part that is already applying.

The Court of Justice of the EU has not yet issued the opinion the European Parliament asked for on 21 January 2026. Nothing in the sources for this page gives a date for when that opinion will be delivered, so none is stated here.

Ratification by EU member states is also pending. The Partnership Agreement enters into force only once every member state has ratified it through its own national procedure. No schedule for that process is set out in the sources for this page.

Until both steps are complete, the distinction between the two parts of the agreement matters for anyone trading with Brazil. The Interim Trade Agreement, which sets out the tariff reductions by product code, has applied provisionally since 1 May 2026. That is the part covered elsewhere on this site: the tariff schedule, the staging categories, the rules of origin for claiming a preferential rate. The Partnership Agreement is a separate, wider instrument. It was approved for signature on the same day as the Interim Trade Agreement and signed at the same ceremony, but it is not in force, and will not be until the Court gives its opinion and ratification is complete.

For an exporter, the practical point is this: provisional application put the tariff schedule into effect, but it does not put the whole agreement into effect. A commitment that sits only in the Partnership Agreement, rather than in the trade agreement that already applies, is not something to rely on today. Anyone checking whether the agreement affects a specific requirement should check which of the two instruments that requirement sits in, rather than asking only whether the agreement as a whole has been signed.

What could change it

Three mechanisms are open at the same time. None of them is described here as likely, and none is given a date.

The Court of Justice opinion is one path. An opinion under this procedure addresses whether the agreement, or the way it was approved, is compatible with the EU treaties. What the Court will find, and when, is not established in the sources for this page.

Ratification in EU member states is a national process, decided separately in each country, and it is not automatic. Every member state has to ratify the Partnership Agreement for it to enter into force. A single national parliament declining to ratify would be enough to stop it. Nothing in the sources for this page indicates that any member state has done so.

The Council vote of 9 January 2026 is itself a record of political opposition at the EU level: France, Poland, Austria, Hungary and Ireland voted against approving the signature, and Belgium abstained. A vote against signature at the Council is a separate act from a vote on ratification, which is decided later and separately in each country. The same governments, or others, can raise objections again during their own ratification process, and the Council vote shows where objections have already been recorded.

Setting out these mechanisms is different from forecasting an outcome. This page does not predict whether, or when, the Court will rule or a given country will ratify.

How we keep this page current

This page is a status tracker, not a one-time summary. The dates, decision numbers and CELEX codes above are drawn from the Council decisions, the Official Journal, and Brazil's Decreto nº 12.953/2026, checked against the sources on the date shown at the bottom of this page.

The "Current status" section at the top is the part we revise. When a step in the timeline is completed, such as the Court of Justice opinion being delivered or a member state completing ratification, we update that section and add the new date to the timeline table.

We do not commit to a fixed review schedule, because we cannot hold one we have not verified in advance. Instead, the "last checked" date below shows when this page was last checked against the sources listed, so readers can judge how current it is for themselves.

Sources

• Council of the European Union, Decision (EU) 2026/183 (CELEX 32026D0183) and agreement text (CELEX 22026A00184), 9 January 2026.
• Council of the European Union, Decision (EU) 2026/185 (CELEX 32026D0185) and agreement text (CELEX 22026A00186), 9 January 2026.
• Council of the European Union, voting record on approval of signature, 9 January 2026.
• European Parliament, plenary vote requesting a Court of Justice opinion, 21 January 2026.
• Brazil, Decreto nº 12.953/2026, 28 April 2026 (planalto.gov.br).
• brasilbusiness.com internal fact pack, verified 7 September 2026.

Last checked: 7 September 2026.