Argentine President Alberto Fernández met Tuesday at Casa Rosada with European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen to discuss the South American country's trade relations with the European Union (EU), as well as the Mercosur-EU agreement ahead of next month's Summit with CELAC in Brussels.
France's Junior Trade Minister Olivier Becht expressed his concerns said this week during his visit to Brazil about concluding the EU-Mercosur deal too hastily. While his country does want a deal concluded between the European Union and South America’s Mercosur, Becht warns against entering into it too quickly, without assurances on environmental and social issues.
European Union farmers and conservative lawmakers are up in arms against landmark nature legislation meant to bolster the bloc's green transition and prevent vital ecosystems and species from being wiped out due to climate change.
New figures published this week show the UK did not import any Russian gas in the 12 months to the end of March 2023, while UK gas exports to Europe tripled over the same period. The UK has gone a whole year without importing any Russian gas - a boost for the country’s energy security and a blow to Putin’s war machine.
Beware the European Union, Germany has entered technical recession. Germany's economy shrunk slightly in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the previous three months, data showed. A preliminary estimate had shown gross domestic product (GPD) stagnating at zero growth in the first quarter — meaning Germany would have narrowly escaped a recession.
Regarding the European Union-Mercosur trade deal, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva insisted that his government's purchases were non-negotiable and promised not to give in because it would entail killing ”the possibility of growth of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). The Workers' Party leader also admitted that discrepancies on this point might delay the agreement a little longer.”
Finland's long-delayed Olkiluoto-3 nuclear reactor connected to the power grid for the first time this month, the plant's operator said, 12 years after its planned launch. Located on Finland's west coast, Olkiluoto-3 is the country's first new nuclear plant in over four decades and Europe's first in almost 15 years.
The European Union is working on agreements with Argentina and Chile with the purpose of increasing access to critical minerals such as lithium, essential for the batteries of electric automobiles and to comply with the EU's less carbon-intensive economy guidelines.
Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira Thursday said during an appearance before his country's Senatorial Foreign Relations Committee that the European Union's (EU) new environmental requirements for the Mercosur-EU agreement could cause enormous damage to the South American bloc.
Brazil’s government said it could not interfere with a landmark EU law banning imports of commodities linked to deforestation but will keep farming according to its own laws. The law approved by the European Parliament on April 19 bans imports of coffee, beef, soy, palm oil, cocoa, rubber, wood, charcoal and derived products including leather, chocolate and furniture if they are linked to forest destruction.