The trade agreement with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay may be significantly delayed after the European Parliament voted to refer it to the European Court of Justice to check its legality.
The European Commission and EU countries are still hoping to push the agreement through so it can enter into force provisionally. According to the news site Euractiv, consideration is being given to allowing parliamentary group leaders to give an informal go-ahead - although this could be overturned when the full European Parliament later votes on whether to approve the agreement.
A similar process was used to provisionally launch the EU's trade and cooperation agreement with the UK after the UK's withdrawal from the EU.
