This content was published on Jun 24, 2023 – 07:02. Jun 24, 2023 – 7:02 am
Paris, 24 June (EFE) Respect for the environment.
“By the end of the year we will have a decision on this matter and I hope that we have the capacity and wisdom needed on this matter which is so important for the EU and Mercosur,” Lula told reporters in one Hotel in Paris where he resided European tour that took him to meetings with several heads of state, including Frenchman Emmanuel Macron.
Lula stressed that the free trade agreement will be a very important topic at the CELAC-EU summit in Brussels in mid-July, which the Brazilian President says he will attend.
The South American president claimed that the EU-Mercosur pact, for which a political pact was struck in 2019 but later stalled due to the refusal of several European parliaments to endorse it, was the “most important” issue to be dealt with Macron had been addressed.
“(The French President) told me that there is no forbidden topic to talk about. We know what your business is, protect your interests and we protect ours. We will not accept that government purchases are banned from our SMEs,” he said.
For the Brazilian president, the two blocs must “put arrogance aside” and he urged that “common sense” must prevail.
“We need the deal with the EU and the EU needs it too, because the EU cannot remain like a piece of Bologna between the US and China,” he added.
Lula understood Macron would have difficulties with a parliament hostile to the deal and admitted that he would try to convince his “friends” on the left in the Chamber, in relation to the Jean-Luc Mélénchon-founded party LFI , to “convince” of it. The pact is good. . EFE
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