THE President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this Thursday (18) that he was surprised to learn that the Italy I wouldn’t like sign THE free trade agreement with the Mercosur due to “political confusion” with the farmers locations. Lula said that today he called the Prime Minister of the country, Giorgia Meloniwho, however, assured that he was “capable” of convincing them to accept the proposal.
“The news for me was Italy. I called the Prime Minister today, I spoke to him, I told him that the date of December 20 was not a date proposed by us, but by Ursula von der Leyen (President of the European Commission) And Antonio Costa (president of the European Council), saying that on December 19 they would vote in Brussels and come here for us to sign the agreement,” Lula said during a breakfast with journalists.
During the meeting with the president, Meloni asked the head of the Brazilian executive to have “patience of a week, ten days, a maximum of a month”, so that Italy can participate in the treaty.. The minister also said that she was not against the signature, but that she experienced a “certain political embarrassment” among Italian farmers. In response, Lula assured that he would raise the issue at the Mercosur meeting.
Lula: Meloni said he was not against the Mercosur-EU agreement and asked for an extra month to sign it
Yesterday, the president had already raised his voice by commenting on the announcement that the European Union could postpone, once again, the signing of the agreement with Mercosur. According to Lula, if the Europeans refuse to conclude the treaty, his government will be “from now on tough” and will not agree to discuss this agreement as long as he is president of Brazil.
“It is important to remember that this Mercosur meeting was supposed to be held on December 2. I changed it to December 20 because the European Union requested it. And I know now that they will not be able to approve the agreement. If I do not do it now, Brazil will not conclude any more agreements as long as I am president,” the president said.
This morning, the president acknowledged once again that the agreement was “more favorable” to Europeans than to South Americans, but despite this, Italy and France would make it difficult to close the agreement.
“The Europeans lose nothing with this agreement (…) And it is important, even from the political point of view, of the defense of multilateralism, even from the point of view of the revaluation of the construction of the WTO”, declared Lula.
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