Lula goes to Brussels by agreement between Mercosur and EU – 07/13/2023 – Market

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) leaves this Sunday (16) for Brussels, Belgium, where he will participate in the third EU-Celac summit, alongside leaders of both institutions, the European Union and the Latin American Community of States. -Americans and Caribbeans.

According to the EU, the summit is an opportunity to strengthen the partnership between countries, discuss working together to achieve fair ecological and digital transitions and demonstrate a shared commitment to upholding the international order.

For Lula, however, the event means yet another attempt to articulate a trade agreement at a more regional level, between the EU and Mercosur (Southern Common Market), whose main countries are Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The latter, however, threatens to make bilateral agreements with China, since, 30 years after its founding, Mercosur has not sealed any relevant agreement with other countries or large blocs of nations.

“Our great ambition in relation to Latin America is to sign the agreement with Mercosur by the end of this year”, said this Thursday afternoon (13) the European Union ambassador to Brazil, Ignacio Ybáñez. “We do not expect that there will be negotiations, nor is this the forum, but rather seek a compromise that the two sides finalize this agreement,” he said at a press conference.

In March, the EU presented a document that it hoped would be the final one, but Brazil is working on a new version. “We already know that some points were not to the liking of the Mercosur countries and we expect a counterproposal.”

Officially negotiated since 1999, the general agreement was concluded in 2019. The final negotiations have been bumping into disagreements in the environmental area. This is a central point in current EU politics and economics, which has been, for example, approving laws to prevent EU countries from buying products from deforestation in the Amazon and other tropical forests.

Speaking of Spain, it is worth mentioning that at the beginning of this month it assumed the six-month rotating chair as the country that presides over the European Council. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez cited this fact when he received Lula in Madrid in April, adding that he would strive to advance the Mercosur agreement.

However, since then, Sánchez has had his position threatened and may not survive until the end of the year. A month after meeting Lula, he brought forward general elections in Spain after his party, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, lost regional elections to the rival Popular Party.

This ballot will take place just a few days after the meeting in Brussels, on the 23rd of July. And, in the polls, the PP appears ahead, opening a likely path for Alberto Feijóo to take over as prime minister in the coming weeks.

According to the European Council, “Leaders will discuss how to harness the enormous potential and opportunities offered by the twin green and digital transitions to increase the prosperity of our citizens. let no one be left behind.”

In addition to efforts to combat climate change, other topics to be addressed at the summit will be global peace and stability, trade and investment, economic recovery, research and innovation, and justice and security for citizens.

The event will be co-chaired by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, alongside the Prime Minister of the Caribbean islands Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves. Previous EU-Celac summits took place in 2013 and 2015.