Consolidating Mercosur as an “undisputed irreversible” integrated block will be Brazilian president Lula da Silva challenge as the pro-tempore chair of the group in the last leg of his eight years in office.
The task must be accomplished in the last five months of his presidency, which ends next January, plus ensuring that his successor as leader of Latinamerica’s largest economy is effectively convinced of Mercosur merits.
“We must keep advancing so that Mercosur is something nobody can have doubts about: that we are convinced-friends in the construction of a political, economic, social and cultural block”, said Lula da Silva on taking the group’s chair from Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner this Tuesday.
Following on the San Juan summit success which ended with years of Mercosur frustrations and paralysis anticipating a strong customs union, Lula da Silva and his acknowledged international prestige, can now concentrate on consolidating the integration process.
Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner and Uruguay’s Jose Mujica implicitly supported the role Lula da Silva will be playing in the coming months.
Mrs. Kirchner underlined that Lula da Silva together with her husband and former president Nestor Kirchner were the architects of the re-launching of Mercosur, while Uruguay’s Mujica praised the attitude of the block’s senior members leaders who left behind “chauvinism” and “the idea that each of them was the centre of the world” and opted for a full-hearted integration.
Lula da Silva anticipated that one of his major challenges would be to reach a trade and political association agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, a task which he admitted will force him to overcome the reticence of France that is contrary to any deals regarding the more competitive South American agriculture.
Source - Mercopress
The task must be accomplished in the last five months of his presidency, which ends next January, plus ensuring that his successor as leader of Latinamerica’s largest economy is effectively convinced of Mercosur merits.
“We must keep advancing so that Mercosur is something nobody can have doubts about: that we are convinced-friends in the construction of a political, economic, social and cultural block”, said Lula da Silva on taking the group’s chair from Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner this Tuesday.
Following on the San Juan summit success which ended with years of Mercosur frustrations and paralysis anticipating a strong customs union, Lula da Silva and his acknowledged international prestige, can now concentrate on consolidating the integration process.
Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner and Uruguay’s Jose Mujica implicitly supported the role Lula da Silva will be playing in the coming months.
Mrs. Kirchner underlined that Lula da Silva together with her husband and former president Nestor Kirchner were the architects of the re-launching of Mercosur, while Uruguay’s Mujica praised the attitude of the block’s senior members leaders who left behind “chauvinism” and “the idea that each of them was the centre of the world” and opted for a full-hearted integration.
Lula da Silva anticipated that one of his major challenges would be to reach a trade and political association agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, a task which he admitted will force him to overcome the reticence of France that is contrary to any deals regarding the more competitive South American agriculture.
Source - Mercopress
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