BRUSSELS — The EU will provisionally implement its trade deal with the South American Mercosur bloc, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Friday, triggering a backlash from opponents of the deal who said the step short-circuited its formal approval by EU lawmakers.

The deal, to create a free-trade area spanning 720 million people, is controversial because it hasn’t yet been officially blessed by the European Parliament. Lawmakers voted last month to send it for review by the Court of Justice of the European Union, effectively freezing its final ratification for up to two years.

Von der Leyen said that, after consulting widely with both EU member states and lawmakers, she had acted to secure “a strategic first-mover advantage in a world of sharp competition and short horizons. But a first-mover advantage has to materialize.” 

Implementation could harden opposition in the European Parliament, antagonize skeptical countries led by France and Poland, and potentially sink the agreement when it comes to a final consent vote.

“This provisional implementation of the trade agreement with Mercosur is anti-democratic. The EU, which always talks about the principles of the rule of law, is here violating its own decision-making process,” said Dutch lawmaker Jessika van Leeuwen, who hails from the European People’s Party, von der Leyen’s own group.

Always say never

French President Emmanuel Macron, who led an epic rearguard action against the deal before being outvoted in January, was silent on Friday. But his country’s farmers, who have fought long and hard against a deal that they say threatens their livelihoods, were not.

“Our farmers will not be sacrificed,” said France’s powerful farm lobby FNSEA. “Pushing through legislation, ignoring the referral to the European Court of Justice, bypassing Member States and parliamentarians: this is an unacceptable denial of democracy.” 

Still, the announcement was welcomed by Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee.

“We are in an exceptional situation where [the European Parliament] can only vote after ECJ. At the same time, international trade rules are constantly violated by others,” the German Social Democrat said in a post on X.

The European Commission received the go-ahead from EU countries in January to implement the deal once Mercosur countries complete their own approvals. Both Argentina and Uruguay ratified the agreement Thursday.

“Well done @vonderleyen for deciding on the provisional application of the Mercosur agreement. It’s a positive impulse for our exports, which continue to contribute to Italy’s economic growth,” Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on X. 

The Commission hasn’t forged ahead with provisional application of trade agreements without letting the European Parliament have a say for more than a decade. But backers of the agreement think the EU has to act now, as the U.S., China, and now the U.K., court the region.

“Some of you who say that we are depriving the European Parliament of the vote. No, it was not us who sent it to the European Court of Justice. You could have voted on this agreement. You decided to send it to the European Court of Justice, which I fully respect,” EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič told EU lawmakers this week.

Giorgio Leali and Bartosz Brzeziński contributed reporting. 

This report has been updated.