The European Parliament has blocked a request for a legal opinion on the Mercosur deal.
The opinion was being sought by a group of MEPs which included Sinn Féin’s MEP Lynn Boylan.
The Parliament says that the request for the legal opinion was “inadmissible” because the Parliament has “not yet submitted its request for the councils consent”.
Boylan says that this is an “extremely concerning development” and one that is without any legal grounds.
“This move is blatant political interferance in the running of the European Parliament itself, to effectively deny 145 MEPs from a number of countries the right to vote on a hugely important issue,” the Sinn Féin MEP said.
“It also sets a worrying precedent, whereby the powers of MEPs and the European parliament are left to the whims of the extremely problematic European council.
“This blocks us from challenging the council decision to not require a parliamentary vote on any international agreement, which is an extremely worrying direction.
“This decision could be corrected at the conference of presidents meeting tonight, and I urge the conference to do the right thing and correct this baseless decision and the damage it will do to the credibility of the European Parliament.”