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The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, asked the teams of the European Union and Mercosur to speed up the procedures to ratify the agreement between the blocks and take advantage of “the window of opportunity” that the agreement could represent.
A call to stop procrastinating. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, asked during her visit to Argentina on June 13 to work as “expeditiously” as possible to take advantage of “the window of opportunity” represented by the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union .
“My objective would be that we do everything possible so that it is concluded as soon as possible,” said Von der Leyen, meeting with Alberto Fernández, president of Argentina.
Von der Leyen assured that the European bloc has “a window of opportunity now to conclude this agreement” and added that “it will be frankly a shame” if it is not taken advantage of. “We would have to set ourselves an ambitious target, to be concluded at the latest before the end of the year,” said the official.
Von der Leyen visited Brazil, Argentina and will continue to Chile and Mexico, as part of a tour of Latin America.
On Monday, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva questioned the ongoing negotiations, especially the European environmental demands.
The agreement was reached in 2019 after 20 years of negotiations, but its ratification is pending.
For his part, the Argentine president said that he is going to present to his Mercosur partners (Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) three specific issues “to unlock the agreement, not to lock it.”
“We believe in the EU-Mercosur agreement,” but to the extent that “both parties win” and “that it is mutually beneficial,” said Fernández.
The EU-Mercosur agreement would link two markets with a total population of 800 million people and which together would represent a quarter of the world’s Gross Domestic Product.
The deal would reduce customs duties and facilitate agricultural exports from South America to Europe, as well as the arrival of European manufacturers in Mercosur countries.
with EFE
