Paris (AFP)
"We had to say it when we were in charge": Emmanuel Macron replied on Monday to the former minister Nicolas Hulot who called on parliamentarians to oppose the EU-Canada Free Trade Agreement (Ceta), submitted on Tuesday. vote of the Assembly.
The former minister of ecological transition has urged parliamentarians to have "the courage to say no" to this text, which in his view could open the door to dangerous substances by lowering health standards.
"Tomorrow, each of you will have more power than all the ministers of Ecology combined.Tomorrow, each of you will be free to vote against the ratification of Ceta and require the reopening of negotiations," writes Mr. Hulot in this letter published Monday on the franceinfo website.
"When we fought to improve a text (...), we can not say a few months later the opposite," said the head of state remotely, indicating having "read the platform" of the former minister, in front of the press after a meeting with Comoros President Azali Assoumani at the Elysee.
"I believe that the real idealism is always to look at the real," he said, saying that a ratification of Ceta would "go in the right direction". But it will be necessary to ensure that it is "well implemented", he added.
Having recently questioned free trade as a factor in climate change, Nicolas Hulot is worried about the norms and the questioning of the precautionary principle in the context of this controversial agreement, which has already given rise to lively debates. at the Assembly last Wednesday.
Ceta must be ratified by the 38 national and regional assemblies of Europe, hence the vote of the Assembly on Tuesday, then in the Senate at a date to be defined.
Endocrine disruptors, pesticides and other carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic substances could enter Europe through this trade agreement, which must remove tariffs on 98% of products traded between the two zones, according to the former minister.
"The government has finally had to recognize that the standards that apply on European soil and those that apply to the import are not the same in sanitary and phytosanitary," said Nicolas Hulot in the open letter.
"What I regret is that he gave up a certain way to act," reacted on France Inter the Minister of Relations with Parliament Marc Fesneau. "We have brought the glyphosate out in three years, the end of the coal plants, the end of the exploitation of hydrocarbons, what counts for me is the concrete facts and not what can be told in the forums ".
Nicolas Hulot "is right to insist on the seriousness of the issue and on this power that each member has to say no to a trade treaty that accelerates and worsens climate change", approved on the contrary the MP and President of Generation Ecology Delphine Batho on Franceinfo.
© 2019 AFP