
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed on Wednesday that Canada become the European Union's first associate member, a status not provided for in the bloc's treaties and whose details have not been defined.
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Once again, it is the 10th of September, when Gibraltar celebrates its National Day on the anniversary of the 1967 referendum on whether to remain British or join Franco’s Spain. The result was decisive, and despite the demise of the fascist dictatorship, Gibraltar remains resolutely British.
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By Diana Tung and Seth M. Holmes (*)
In August 2026, a deep humanitarian crisis unfolded in Ceuta, a small Spanish enclave situated on Morocco’s northern coast. Around 72,000 people entered from Morocco over the course of two days. More than 100 drowned drowned trying to cross into Spanish territory.

The internal distribution of export quotas under the trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union will dominate much of the debate at the bloc's summit of heads of state, to be held on June 30 in Asunción, where Paraguay will hand over the six-month presidency to Uruguay. The meeting coincides with the 35th anniversary of the Treaty of Asunción, the bloc's founding charter.

Uruguay will assume the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur on June 30, during a summit of the bloc in Paraguay, with the distribution of the quotas from the agreement with the European Union (EU) among the main items on its agenda. Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin said the country is already preparing to take on that role and that “the technical teams are already working.”

A month after the provisional entry into force of the trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur, exchanges have been governed since May 1 by the terms agreed upon, while political and legal attention in Brussels centers on the EU Court of Justice, which must rule on the validity of the mechanism chosen to launch the treaty.

Uruguay this week filled 63% of the annual zero-tariff rice quota granted by the European Union to Mercosur, in the first significant trade milestone since the provisional entry into force, on 1 May, of the association agreement between the two blocs. The total quota of 6,667 tons for the current year was covered within a few weeks of activity, according to Acting Foreign Minister Valeria Csukasi, in what amounts to one of the first operational tests of the treaty signed on 17 January in Asunción.

Negotiators from the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission reached a provisional agreement in the early hours of Wednesday on the final text of the tariff pact with the United States, in a decision that closes ten months of negotiations marked by pressures, threats, and successive blockages in the European Parliament. The Cypriot presidency of the Council, exercised during the first half of 2026, confirmed the breakthrough through the X social media platform and emphasized that the aim of the agreement is to enhance a stable and predictable trade relationship between the two blocs.

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday to defend her country's claim to the Essequibo, the border region disputed with Guyana, before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The trip, authorized under a specific waiver to the European Union sanctions imposed on her, marks her first major international journey outside the Caribbean since the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by US forces in January, which paved the way for her to assume office as interim leader.

The association agreement between Mercosur and the European Union (EU) enters provisionally into force on Friday May 1, after more than a quarter-century of negotiations, in what constitutes one of the world's most ambitious trade deals and the largest reciprocal opening ever finalised by the South American bloc. The final signing took place on January 17 in Asunción and, although final ratification by the European Court of Justice and subsequent approval by the European Parliament remain pending, provisional entry into force allows the immediate start of tariff reductions covering 95% of Mercosur products and 91% of EU products.