Ecuador will notify its intention of beginning negotiation to join Mercosur, while at the same time closing a trade agreement with the European Union. The announcement was made by President Rafael Correa during his regular weekly reports on radio and television.
Bolivia has completed the presentation of its Mercosur incorporation protocol, which opens the way for the parliaments of the different member-countries to begin considering and ratifying her full membership. Once completed Bolivia becomes the sixth full member next to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Public support for Spain’s ruling centre-right party the PP has slipped following a high-level corruption scandal and ongoing recession, and Spaniards remain pessimistic about the political and economic outlook, a poll showed last Friday.
The chairman of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Mercosur, MEP Luis Yañez Barnuevo currently visiting Argentina and Uruguay said he was “confident the trade agreement between the Mercosur bloc and the EU will be signed at the beginning of 2014”.
Uruguay has formally requested Pope Francis to receive President Jose Mujica when he travels at the end of the month to China, Spain and Italy. Mujica is an agnostic and Uruguay is one of the few Latinamerican countries in which the Catholic Church has been separated from the State for almost a century.
Brazil and Argentina are trying to address their economic and trade differences so that they can reach a long-standing, long term solution, said Marco Aurelio García, the Brazilian Executive advisor on foreign issues and trouble shooter for this kind of conflicts.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro begins next Tuesday an official one visit to Uruguay when he will be meeting with head of state Jose Mujica and former president Tabare Vazquez.On Wednesday he plans to fly to Argentina and the following day, Brazil.
Brazil has virtually frozen political and economic relations with Argentina following serious discrepancies that were confirmed during the recent summit of presidents Cristina Fernandez with Dilma Rousseff who cut short the originally scheduled two-day visit to Buenos Aires.
Vice-president Danilo Astori admitted on Friday that economic-trade relations with Argentina continue to deteriorate and seriously question Mercosur and Uruguay must therefore speed the search for other alternatives.
The Argentine radical group ‘Resistencia Malvinas’ protested on Thursday midday before the Lan Chile offices in downtown Buenos Aires to demand the end of the weekly air link between Punta Arenas and the Falkland Islands. The group led by Toni Lopez and with drums banging displayed banners, distributed pamphlets and burnt Union Jacks.