Trade: Before the EU-Latin America summit: Von der Leyen meets Lula

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shortly before the start of a major summit with the community of Latin American and Caribbean countries. One of the topics of the talks on Monday morning was the current blockade of the planned free trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur states of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Lula had recently described an additional declaration on topics such as climate, environment and human rights desired by EU states as “unacceptable”. The world’s largest free trade area could be created via the EU-Mercosur agreement. It is intended to reduce tariffs and thus boost trade.

When welcoming Lula, von der Leyen said the aim was to settle the remaining differences as quickly as possible in order to be able to conclude the agreement. “We have a major war on European soil and face the generational challenge of climate change. That’s why we need our close friends by our side in these uncertain times,” she said. It is about connecting people and companies more closely and strengthening supply chains. Economies must be modernized in such a way that inequalities are reduced.

Lula da Silva: It’s also about climate issues

Lula said that for Brazil it is about sharing the benefits of the current intense economic development with partners in the EU and elsewhere. However, it is not only about industrial development and growth, but also about climate issues. In Brazil, around 87 percent of electricity comes from renewable sources. His country will meet its climate protection commitments and has already pledged to stop deforesting the Amazon rainforest by 2030. Neither Lula nor von der Leyen initially publicly addressed the dispute over the trade agreement.

More than 50 heads of state and government from the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean will take part in the two-day summit in Brussels until Tuesday. In addition to trade issues and climate protection, the topic should also be the war in Ukraine. It is only the third such summit between the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).

Different attitudes towards the Ukraine war

The different attitudes to the Ukraine war could cause conflicts. Although Lula, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández have condemned the Russian attack, they reject tough sanctions against Russia. Instead, they keep emphasizing the consequences of war, for example, on food and energy prices around the world. Many heads of state and government in Latin America are calling for peace talks and are refusing to give clear support to Ukraine. According to EU officials, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not attend the summit.

With the left-wing authoritarian states of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, Moscow also has three allies in the region who even openly support Russia. Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and Venezuela’s Head of State Nicolás Maduro are unlikely to attend the Brussels summit. Both are sanctioned and only travel to allied countries or states that do not support the sanctions.