Lula confirms participation in CELAC-European Union summit – 7/5/2023 – World

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) confirmed this Wednesday (5th) that he will participate in the summit of the countries of the Celac (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) and the EU (European Union) countries, on the 17th and 18th of July in Brussels, Belgium.

The Brazilian leader even signaled that he would send the vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) to the meeting, but reconsidered the trip, considered opportune by the government for the articulation of the trade agreement between Mercosur and the EU.

In March, the EU ambassador to Brazil, Spaniard Ignacio Ybáñez, told Sheet that the meeting in Brussels would be the ideal moment to get the agreement between the two blocs off the ground. Negotiations, however, are stuck due to divergences in the environmental area.

Lula has already promised to conclude the agreement in 2023, but said that the current terms are impossible to be accepted, defending a renegotiation of the text.

The Brazilian president confirmed his participation in the meeting to the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. It was the first conversation between the two after assuming, respectively, the presidencies of Mercosur and the Council of the EU. By telephone, the Spaniard reiterated to Lula the invitation to the CELAC-European Union summit, according to a statement released by the Itamaraty.

“Sánchez also spoke about the Business Forum, scheduled for the 17th, and invited President Lula to open the event alongside him [Sánchez] and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. At the forum, new European investments in Latin America should be announced”, says the text.

Officially negotiated since 1999, the Mercosur-European Union agreement was concluded in 2019, in the first year of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, but has not yet been ratified by the two blocs. The main impasse is an annex to the text, called a “side letter”, proposed by the Europeans at the beginning of this year, which would make some previously voluntary environmental commitments mandatory.

While Europe wants to ensure that the export of commodities with environmental problems is seen as a sanctionable violation, the Brazilian government considers the conditions too strict and the tone of criticism has been increasing. “It is not possible for there to be an additional letter threatening a strategic partner,” said the PT in France last month.

Together, Mercosur and the EU account for about 25% of the world’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product), covering a population of 750 million people.

In January, Brazil returned to CELAC, a forum inaugurated in 2011, in Chile, and made up of 33 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean, but abandoned by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).