MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay signs green hydrogen deal with EU

Lacalle stressed that he does not believe in “exacerbated protectionism”

Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou Tuesday signed a “Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Renewable Energies, Energy Efficiency, and Green Hydrogen” with the European Union to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and held one-on-one meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italy's Prime Minister Georgia Meloni on the closing day of the EU-Celac summit in Brussels.

Lacalle signed the deal on behalf of the South American country and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen did it on behalf of the EU. Also signing were the EU's Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, and Uruguay's Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo. As per the new document, renewable energy is a priority along with energy efficiency and the use of green hydrogen.

“The EU and Uruguay share the ambition to increase the use of renewable energy sources, in line with our ambitious climate goals. We are aligned on the need for a rules-based, transparent, and undistorted global hydrogen market,” Von der Leyen said.

“With this signature, negotiations on renewable energies are successfully concluded. The instrument will consolidate the progress made to consolidate Uruguay as a supplier of green hydrogen and the establishment of a common framework that will provide fluidity for this trade,” Uruguay's Foreign Ministry said on Twitter while the Industry Ministry posted that the agreement meant “reaching carbon neutrality by 2050,” which it highlighted as “a historic pact that will have the promotion of the green hydrogen industry as one of its pillars.”

In his speech before the plenum, Lacalle argued: “It is very difficult for me to explain to my teenage children that it has taken us 25 years to reach an agreement in this world that has changed so much.” He made those remarks regarding the EU-Mercosur trade deal which is yet to be finalized.

Macron has been one of the main opponents of the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur signed in 2019, which was not ratified by the European nations due to concerns of non-compliance with environmental standards such as the Paris Treaty by the South American countries.

“An agreement with Latin American countries is not possible if they do not respect the Paris agreements as we do and if they do not respect the same environmental and sanitary restrictions that we impose on our producers,” the French leader had said in March.

In September 2021, Macron insisted that “France is against Mercosur as it is being negotiated today and we will continue to be very clearly against it. Not because we are not comfortable with our friends in Mercosur, but because by definition, this agreement, as it has been conceived and designed, cannot be compatible with our climate and biodiversity agenda.”

In this scenario, Lacalle stressed that he does not believe in “exacerbated protectionism” and pressed for progress in the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur. “As representatives of Latin America, we are aware of our strengths and weaknesses,” Lacalle underlined.

Lacalle also highlighted the spirit of his Latin American peers belonging to the bloc to agree in small steps. “It seems to us a good thing in this interconnected and fast-paced world where what we have to strengthen and recover is trust.” But he added that critical optimism “is what tells us that it is time to move forward.”

“Enough of words and 25 years of negotiations,” he stated while underscoring Uruguay's democratic standards, human development, care for the environment, institutional strength, and respect for the law, “which is what makes us travel the world and participate in these meetings with open arms.”

“We really believe in integration and we understand that many countries protect themselves, but what we don't understand is exacerbated protectionism,” he said.

“We have a precious opportunity to make the decisions that are required and to resume trust, among ourselves, among our peoples, and that of the people who put us at the helm of our countries,” he stressed.