MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mercosur leaders summit July first in Tucuman

Argentina will be hosting the XXXV Mercosur summit at the end of June when the six months rotating chair or pro-tempore presidency will be passed on to Brazil.

The Mercosur leaders' summit is scheduled for July first in the city of San Miguel de Tucuman. On June 30 the Common Market Council, will be meeting. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Brazil's Lula da Silva will be present together with the leaders from Uruguay, Tabare Vazquez; Paraguay Nicanor Duarte and probably president elect Fernando Lugo, and Hugo Chavez from Venezuela that is in the process of incorporation to the block. Associate country members' leaders from Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia are also scheduled to participate in the gathering. Energy, asymmetries, trade, support for weaker economies and regional conflicts figure in the agenda of the meeting. Previous to the summit the Mercosur Parliament will hold a symbolic session in Tucuman which is also the city where Argentina declared independence from Spain on July 9, 1816.