President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated this Thursday (18) that the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, asked for a few more days to try to overcome internal resistance against the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur. 
Traded for over 25 years, the commercial treaty of the European bloc with the group formed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay was expected to be signed during the Mercosur Leaders’ Summit, scheduled for next Saturday (20), in Foz do Iguaçu (PR), but it has been contested especially by France, which fears losing competitiveness in agriculture and, now, by the Italians.
“In the conversation with Prime Minister Meloni, she explained to me that she is not against the agreement. She is just experiencing a certain political embarrassment on behalf of the Italian farmers, but she is sure that she is capable of convincing them to accept the agreement. And, then, she asked me that if we have the patience of one week, 10 days, maximum one month, Italy will be along with the agreement”, stated the president, in an interview with the press.
According to him, the request will be taken up for debate among Mercosur presidents.
“The agreement is more favorable to the European Union than to us. And we told them that this agreement was extremely important from a political point of view. Because it is an agreement that involves 722 million human beings, 22 trillion dollars and it is an agreement that will provide a response of survival, of survival, of multilateralism to those who want to build unilateralism”, highlighted Lula.
The president received journalists for breakfast at Palácio do Planalto, followed by a press conference. He was accompanied by Finance Ministers Fernando Haddad; from the Civil House, Rui Costa; of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira; and Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva.
This semester, Brazil is the president of Mercosur and Lula has made finalizing the agreement with the Europeans a priority, but the text has not yet been approved by the European Parliament, a condition for it to be signed during the meeting in Foz do Iguaçu this weekend. Yesterday, at a ministerial meeting, Lula went on to say that this is the last chance for the agreement to be signed, a position that has been reinforced by Chancellor Mauro Vieira.
During the press conference, Lula noted that the involvement of the leaders of European countries is essential for the agreement to move forward and revealed that he had even appealed to the First Lady of France, Brigitte Macron, to “soften the heart” of French President Emmanuel Macron. The Brazilian president once again highlighted that the foreseen safeguards guarantee the protection of the European agricultural market.
“So, what I think is that when we, managers want to do it, we have to do it,” he said. “If it won’t be possible to sign now, because it won’t be ready, I can’t do anything either. Let’s wait for tomorrow. Hope is the last thing to die”, he concluded.
Clarifications
In an official note, the Italian government did not detail deadlines, but confirmed the content of the conversation between Meloni and Lula and said it expected clarification on aspects of the trade agreement so that it can move forward between the parties.
“Regarding the Mercosur agreement, as already declared in Parliament by Prime Minister Meloni and reiterated to Brazilian President Lula, the Italian Government is ready to sign the agreement as soon as the necessary answers are provided to farmers, which depend on the decisions of the European Commission and may be defined soon”.
*Article expanded at 3:06 pm to add a note from the Italian government
