
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff will inaugurate on Tuesday in Paraguay next to his peer Horacio Cartes a high voltage transmission line from the world's largest operational hydroelectric dam Itaipú to metropolitan Asuncion, capital of the landlocked country and which was financed with Mercosur funds.

The Paraguayan foreign affairs ministry will represent Mercosur next December when the exchange of proposals with the European Union for a long pending free trade agreement, announced Uruguayan president Jose Mujica on Friday following private talks with his visiting peer from Paraguay, Horacio Cartes.

President Horacio Cartes although admitting he is heart and mind committed to Mercosur, Paraguay's full return to Mercosur is in the hands of diplomacy since as head of state he must abide strictly by the rule of the law.

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica popularity reached 51% in October while approval of his performance stood at 45%, according to the latest opinion poll released this week and a year ahead of national elections. In Uruguay there is no re-election

Uruguay and Brazil have concluded their proposals to present to the European Union and are waiting for Argentina and Paraguay, in the framework of current negotiations, delayed for years, to reach a free trade and cooperation agreement between the two blocs.

Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes will be visiting Uruguay next 25 October to meet with his peer Jose Mujica and a month later will be flying to the Vatican to visit Pope Francis, November 25, announced Foreign minister Eladio Loizaga.

The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso anticipated that 'soon' there will be 'events' referred to the EU/Mercosur cooperation and trade agreement and underlined that Brazil is most interested in making possible such an accord.

Brazil trusts Paraguay will fully return to Mercosur before the end of the year, said Brazil's Executive foreign policy advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia in a Sunday edition interview with the influential Folha de Sao Paulo.

Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes vetoed the bill imposing a 10% tax on export of cereals and oilseeds in their natural state recently approved by a divided Congress, arguing it was “highly distortive and regressive”. The bill now returns to the legislative.

The conclusion of a trade and cooperation agreement between the European Union and Mercosur ‘only depends on the bloc’ said the European Commission Vice-President for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani.