Weber threatens plenary vote on US trade deal

The European People’s Party’s (EPP) leader Manfred Weber has threatened to end negotiations with national diplomats on the EU-US trade pact and send the issue to a plenary vote.

The threat comes ahead of a second round of talks between MEPs and the Council due to start on Wednesday evening and aimed at making progress on the so-called “Turnberry” deal closed at Donald Trump’s Scottish golf course last summer.

“If the trilogue this week does not produce a result, then we, as the EPP, will simply put [Turnberry] to a vote,” Weber, who chairs the centre-right group in the European Parliament, told reporters on Tuesday.

The proposal under the “Turnberry” deal scraps tariffs on hundreds of US agricultural and industrial goods.

Trump has recently threatened to raise tariffs on EU cars, claiming the bloc is not complying with the agreement. EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is expected to meet US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Paris this afternoon.

Weber described the threat of a full Parliament vote – which could see the trade deal approved with a far-right majority and significantly fewer conditions – as an “appeal to the Social Democrats, both in Berlin and at the European level.” “Europe must show that what has been signed can also be delivered,” he added.

During the first meeting in April, Socialist MEP Bernd Lange, the Parliament’s lead negotiator, said he was confident that more than two rounds of negotiations would be needed to reach a deal.

The main sticking points concern Parliament’s push to attach conditions to the proposal. The move is spearheaded by Lange, with support from negotiators at Renew, the Greens, and even EPP MEP Jörgen Warborn, who had advocated including a sunrise clause that would make the deal conditional on the US lowering tariffs on steel and aluminium derivatives.

MEPs are also pushing for a ‘sunset clause’ – an expiry date for the agreement by March 2028. 

Negotiations are complicated by the Council’s softer approach, as it prefers to keep the deal close to the version originally proposed by the Commission.

Lange told Euractiv that without a “strong outcome of negotiations with the Council … there’s no majority in the European Parliament for a weak deal.” He added that delays in negotiations followed Washington’s threats to annex Greenland and a Supreme Court ruling that struck down most of Trump’s tariffs.

The German MEP’s remarks were echoed by Karin Karlsbro, a Swedish lawmaker from the liberal Renew group.

“It is not serious by the EPP to rush to a vote on an agreement that lacks support in the European Parliament due to pressure from the US,” she told Euractiv, adding that Trump’s recent tariff threat “clearly underlines the need” for the Parliament’s proposed safeguards.

The European Commission did not respond to a request for comment.

(aw, jp)

UPDATE: This story was updated to include more comment and clarity.