The European Commission (EC) confirmed on Wednesday (19.06.2019) that the European Union (EU) and Mercosur will hold a new round of technical negotiations this week in Brussels, although it stressed that there is still a long way to go to close the trade agreement between the two blocs. «work to be done«.
«The chief negotiators of the EU and Mercosur will hold a meeting in Brussels this week during which they will discuss the main outstanding issues, including some key interests of the European Union., declared the spokesperson for the Community Executive, Daniel Rosario, during the institution's daily press conference.
The official added that depending on the outcome of those discussions, "A meeting at a political level could be called in the coming days«.
«The EC welcomes and shares the political commitment expressed by Mercosur over the past days and weeks. We are committed to bringing the ongoing trade negotiations to a successful conclusion, but as we have said time and again, for this to happen there is still work to be done.er»He said.
Asked whether one round of negotiations alone would be enough to seal the deal, the EC spokesman said on Wednesday that the process was underway "Step by Step«.
«First we will have these meetings at a technical level. Let's see how far the chief negotiators go in their discussions."he said, not wanting to list the pending issues.
He therefore urged that negotiators be allowed to address these open issues "face to face" this week.
"Then, let's see if the conditions are there for a meeting at the political level to take place in the next few days.""s," he concluded.
Technical negotiations for an agreement between the EU and Mercosur began in Buenos Aires in April 2000 and have since been held over thirty rounds of negotiations, a complex process that has been blocked for many years.
Over the past two years, there have been many optimistic comments predicting an agreement within a short period of time, but they have all passed without any agreement being reached.
Source: Reuters
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