In the last mandate, the Directorate-General for the Environment (DG ENV) of the Von der Leyen Commission paid NGOs to take action against the Mercosur free trade agreement. The annex to the contract concluded with the NGO European Environmental Bureau states, for example, that the NGO should lobby the EU and the member states on the matter. The aim is to stop the ratification of the trade agreement. This contradicts the aim of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the then Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis to conclude the trade agreement.