Mercosur

• Monday, June 15th 2009 - 12:50 UTC

  Former Uruguayan president favours eliminating Mercosur parliament

  

  Former Uruguayan president and the leading presidential hopeful of the main opposition party Luis Alberto Lacalle said that the Mercosur Parliament, Parlasur, lacks all meaning and purpose and proposed its dissolution, in an interview published Sunday in the Montevideo press.

• Friday, June 12th 2009 - 18:29 UTC

  Public opinion rapidly loosing enchantment with Mercosur

  

  Mercosur supports significant institutional deficits, lacks clear bearings, negotiations with the European Union are stalled and there is a devalued public opinion perception of the block, which is attempting to become a customs union.

• Thursday, June 11th 2009 - 10:10 UTC

  Spain promises to boost stalled EU/Mercosur negotiations

  

  The financial crisis should be the springboard for a “leap forward” in negotiations for the association agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, said Spain’s Secretary of State for Ibero-America currently on a tour of Mercosur country members.

• Monday, June 8th 2009 - 12:59 UTC

  Spain committed to resumption of EU/Mercosur free trade talks

  

  Spain’s Secretary of State for Ibero-America Juan Pablo de Laigleisa begins Monday in Buenos Aires a visit to three Mercosur country members in preparation for when Madrid takes over the presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2010.

• Wednesday, June 3rd 2009 - 08:42 UTC

  GM Latinamerica confirms business as usual in Mercosur

  

  General Motors has no plans to cut jobs or production in any of its businesses in the Mercosur region said on Tuesday GM’s general manager in Argentina. Edgar Lourencon went further and anticipated that plans to launch a new model for the region at the end of the year are advancing as programmed, and that the bankruptcy filing and restructuring of GM in the US does not influence business as usual in Mercosur countries.

• Tuesday, June 2nd 2009 - 12:37 UTC

  Argentine industrial union wants to block Venezuela from Mercosur

  

  The powerful Argentine Industrial Union, UIA, has called on its Mercosur peers to impede Venezuela’s incorporation to Mercosur in reprisal for the nationalization spree launched by President Hugo Chavez.

• Monday, June 1st 2009 - 13:38 UTC

  Mercosur remains strategic for Uruguay and must be “strengthened”

  

  Uruguay will emphasize the need to “strengthen” Mercosur given the global context and the current weakness of the group’s cohesion said the country’s head of the Economic, Integration and Mercosur affairs office at the foreign relations ministry. However the current political environment does not seem to be the most appropriate.

• Wednesday, May 27th 2009 - 12:09 UTC

  Argentine industries union rejects Venezuela in Mercosur

  

  Argentina’s powerful Industrial Union (UIA) urged Argentina's government to revise the possibility of integrating Venezuela as a member of the Mercosur, “after the reiterating actions which have implied the nationalization of companies in Venezuela”.

• Wednesday, May 27th 2009 - 11:53 UTC

  Brazil confident Venezuela joins Mercosur next September

  

  Brazil Lula da Silva said on Tuesday his peer Hugo Chavez is expecting the Brazilian Senate to approve Venezuela’s incorporation to Mercosur before next September.

• Monday, May 25th 2009 - 17:55 UTC

  Mercosur is a “body without soul” says Brazilian minister

  

  Mercosur is currently a “body without soul” admitted Brazil’s Strategic Affairs minister Roberto Mangabeira Unger who called for a joint project to overcome “the huge asymmetries of power between Brazil and its neighbours”.