Sánchez keeps his fingers crossed that the agreement with Mercosur will be signed in the coming days

Madrid – The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, has assured that he is “keeping his fingers crossed” so that the signing of the agreement between the EU and Mercosur finally takes place soon, since he considers that it would represent a “giant step” toward strengthening the relationship between the Twenty-Seven and Latin America.

“I believe that we are, I’m keeping my fingers crossed, on the verge of signing the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, for which Spain has worked hard,” the president said during the inauguration of the Conference of Ambassadors at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

His remarks come in view of the prospect that this very week the Twenty-Seven will authorize by qualified majority the negotiating mandate, which would pave the way for the signing of the agreement with the bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay to take place in the coming days.

In the president’s opinion, if after decades of negotiation the agreement is finally signed, the EU will be taking “a giant step” toward strengthening its relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean.

For Sánchez, at a time like the present, with the reorganization of the world order, “Europe needs allies, it needs friends.” “I believe that if there is a continent with which we share many things, not only from the Spanish point of view, but also the European one, it is precisely the Ibero-American continent,” he argued, stressing that “Latin America cannot continue to be Europe’s great forgotten region.”

Along the same lines, he argued that Spain is also committed to “trade agreements with India, with Indonesia, with Mexico and the digital agreement with South Korea.”

Albares: “There are no more excuses to delay it”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, also referred to the agreement with Mercosur. “It must be concluded, we have been dragging out this negotiation for 25 years, there are no more excuses to delay it,” he stressed.

The minister drew attention to the fact that the EU and Mercosur would form “the most important free trade area in the world, with 700 million people, and that it would mean annual savings of more than 4 billion euros in tariffs.” “It is not just a trade agreement, it is also the political commitment of partnership that we are offering to that region of the world,” he emphasized.

The agreement is an opportunity, not a threat

For his part, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, said that he sees Mercosur as a “great opportunity” and not as a “threat”, and therefore he is confident that the trade agreement can be unblocked this week.

“It is a serious mistake to see Mercosur as a threat, because it is a great opportunity, including for the agri-food sector,” Planas said during a meeting with the media. “Tomorrow there is an important meeting of the Member States and I believe that we are in a position to reach a qualified majority to ratify Mercosur,” he noted.

The head of Agriculture, who yesterday attended a meeting of agriculture ministers in Brussels, insisted that this agreement “is fundamental” for the European Union, both from a commercial and a political point of view. “I hope and wish that the qualified majority on Friday is confirmed, allowing us to reach that agreement, because its entry into force is a very important element,” Planas stressed. (January 8)