I really want to make a Mercosur-EU agreement, says Lula to Macron – 06/23/2023 – Market

“It is not possible that, in a meeting with world leaders, the word inequality did not appear”, said President Lula in a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and dozens of heads of State, at the closing ceremony of the Summit of the New Financial Pact, which takes place in Paris since Thursday (22).

The meeting promoted six round tables to discuss the reform of multilateral financial institutions and development banks, with the objective of leveraging investment in basic infrastructure and climate actions in developing countries.

“Alongside the climate issue, we have to put inequality. Salary, race, gender, health,” proposed Lula, adding that the world has increased the concentration of wealth.

“If inequality is not discussed with equal priority to the climate issue, we could have a very good climate and people dying of hunger in several countries,” he said.

Lula again said that it is easy to govern for the poor and stated that the government needs now, with the return of hunger, to do again everything that was done in 2003.

“We are going to put an end to hunger. Dilma knows we can. Now she can prepare her pen to sign some loans, for Brazil and for the poorest countries,” he said.

The president defended reforms at the World Bank and the IMF and again criticized the criterion of permanent seats on the UN Security Council, which, according to him, no longer represents the reality of 2023, but that of 1945.

In defending that the UN has more representation and political strength, Lula stated that “without this, the climate issue becomes a joke”. The president cited as an example the lack of implementation of climate agreements.

“Let’s be frank: who here fulfilled [o Protocolo de] Kyoto? [A decisão de] Copenhagen, COP21? [O Acordo de] Paris?”, he questioned, in a tone of provocation to the heads of state.

Lula also criticized the weakening of the World Trade Organization, to which he attributed the return of protectionism.

Sitting next to Macron at the end of the summit, Lula addressed the trade agreement negotiated between the European Union and Mercosur.

“I am dying to make an agreement with the European Union. The additional letter that was made by the European Union is not possible. We will send a response, but we need to start discussing”, he said. Right after the summit ended, Lula and Macron went to a bilateral meeting over lunch.

“It is not possible for there to be an additional letter threatening a strategic partner,” complained Lula.

Then, the president praised the European Union — whose creation was, according to him, “a democratic heritage for humanity after two wars”.

He also said that he would like to do the same in Latin America and that today the African Union is much more organized than the Latin American countries.

Lula once again defended currencies for international trade that make countries independent of the dollar —”why do I need the dollar to negotiate with Argentina, with China?”, he exemplified.

Lula warned that he would speak impromptu. “I’ve already changed my speech ten times and I’m not going to read it,” she said.

The president reinforced the invitation to the Climate COP30 and also to the Amazon Summit, which takes place in August and should bring together leaders of the Amazonian countries to formulate proposals for the large forests, which should later also be integrated into articulations with Indonesia and African countries. .

Lula repeated data on the conservation of the Amazon, the commitment to zero deforestation by 2030 and the predominance of renewable energy in the Brazilian matrix. He also cited adversity such as gold mining, organized crime and the agricultural expansion into the forest.

“There are people in bad faith who try to make soybeans and corn planted in the forest, when this is not necessary”, he said, citing that there are 30 million degraded lands available for recovery and planting.

“Responsible businessmen know that this [o desmatamento] will create a very serious problem for the products we want to sell to other countries”, he mentioned, also mentioning the importance of the other four Brazilian biomes, in addition to the Amazon.

At the end of the speech, Lula said that, despite being 77 years old, he has the energy he had when he was 30 years old.

“Macron, get ready, I’m more willing to fight in these next three years as president of Brazil”, said the president at the end of the speech. When speaking after Lula, the Frenchman replied that he was also outraged and with the same energy as everyone there.

The reporter traveled at the invitation of the French Embassy in Brazil.