Asunción, Agencia IP.- President Santiago Peña valued the efforts of his Brazilian counterpart, Lula Da Silva, to close the agreement with the European Union (EU) but regretted the lack of political will from the European bloc and urged greater rapprochement and agreement between the countries of the Southern Cone.
«I think the time has come for us to say it is enough. It is time to look inward,» said Peña at the meeting before the Mercosur Summit. Paraguay received today the bloc Presidency for the next six months.
Peña advanced his position of seeking Mercosur to negotiate trade agreements with other countries and asked Lula da Silva to seal the agreement. «If he doesn’t close, I’m not going to continue in December,» he said upon his return from the United Nations General Assembly.
«I am convinced that our region of the world has the greatest potential,» he said this Thursday before the presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia. He pointed out that in response to future global challenges, such as access to water, food, and renewable energy, the Mercosur countries are protagonists in these areas and have great potential.
Agreement with the European Union
«I see that the possibility of negotiating with the European Union is a political problem, and I believe that as an economic bloc, when we see that this trade agreement evolves towards a monetary or political agreement, we must evaluate what is happening in Europe,» continued the Paraguayan President during the Presidents Summit convened by Lula.
Peña pointed out that the European Union has solved numerous problems for this continent. However, he indicated that monetary integration «was a huge mistake for many of the member countries,» added to political integration with the movement of the capitals to Brussels «has politically emptied many European countries.»
«This has to be a wake-up call for us as Presidents and politicians,» he argued, «since politics is the tool that allows us to generate changes for the benefit of nations.»
During his presentation, Santiago Peña requested greater integration and rapprochement between the Presidents of the bloc, which takes as priority the relations between States before the personal visions of the leaders.
He reiterated that Mercosur’s opportunities worldwide are enormous. It is necessary to build the links that allow the bloc to resolve its differences and advance an integration process that benefits all its members.