MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

France to donate € 500 million to Brazil's Amazon Fund

“With Brazil, we are determined to preserve the forests,” Macron said

French President Emmanuel Macron Saturday pledged € 500 million over the next three years to Brazil's Amazon Fund, while the United Kingdom announced an additional £ 35 million (around € 40.78 million) in addition to the £ 80 million (€ 93.22 million) it had already announced in May, Agencia Brasil reported.

After criticizing the free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, Macron announced the funding for wildlife preservation in a post on the X social network formerly known as Twitter.

“With Brazil, we are determined to preserve the forests. Over the next three years, France will dedicate 500 million euros to their preservation,” Macron said. The statement was published alongside a photo of him with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during a bilateral meeting at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in the United Arab Emirates.

The announcement came hours after Macron criticized the Mercosur-European Union agreement, which he called “incoherent” and said he was “totally against.”

Macron claims that the agreement, which has been negotiated for decades, is being “badly patched up” in an attempt to close it.

“[The agreement] doesn't take into account biodiversity and the climate within it. It's an old-fashioned trade agreement that undoes tariffs,” he added.

Lula said that his French counterpart had the right to object. “France has always been a tough country to make agreements with because France is more protectionist,” said Lula.

See also: EU-Mercosur deal slowly vanishing

(Source: Agencia Brasil)