Brussels\u2019 My Love?<\/a> talked to Pedro Miguel da Costa e Silva, Brazil\u2019s ambassador to the EU, Ad\u00e9la\u00efde Charlier, climate and human rights advocate and Teresa K\u00fcchler, EU affairs correspondent for Svenska Dagbladet.<\/p>\nThe EU-Mercosur agreement: between opportunities and risks<\/p>\n
On 17 January, after 25 years of talks, the EU and the Latin Amercian Mercosur bloc signed a historic trade agreement creating a 700 million-person free-trade area. <\/p>\n
The European Parliament later voted to refer the deal to the EU Court of Justice on 21 January, a move that delayed the agreement and could derail its final approval. <\/p>\n
K\u00fcchler, who spent years covering this topic, says it’s a done deal: \u201cI think now it [the deal] will pass, and it\u2019s because of Donald Trump and the new notion of needing new friends\u201d. <\/p>\n
According to K\u00fcchler, France, a vocal opponent of the deal, voted against it knowing that there would have been a majority in favour in order to preserve farmers\u2019 votes ahead of the 2027 presidential election.<\/p>\n
The deal has sparked discontent among European farmers, who fear increased competition, as well as among environmental activists and non-governmental organisations. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t feel comfortable with this agreement because it\u2019s still really lacking assurances to make sure that this agreement is not going to weaken our environmental policies, which are already at stake today,\u201d Charlier explained. <\/p>\n
A view that Brazil\u2019s ambassador to the EU does not share: “I have a lot of trouble understanding those who speak for the environment to be against an agreement that will reinforce cooperation and coordination with our countries.” <\/p>\n
According to da Costa e Silva, the EU-Mercosur agreement is \u201cone of the most advanced agreements in terms of trade and sustainable development,\u201d and even without an agreement, the trade between the two blocs would continue. <\/p>\n
The EU\u2019s competition puzzle<\/p>\n
But trade is not the only strategy to revive the EU\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, top EU leaders met with some of the most influential industrial executives in Antwerp, Belgium. The conversation on competitiveness followed yesterday, when the 27 EU leaders gathered in the Belgian countryside for an informal summit.<\/p>\n
According to Charlier, it is important to focus on the EU\u2019s industry, but the drive to scael down regulation and cut red tape should not come at the expense of workers\u2019 rights and other European values, Charlier said.<\/p>\n
K\u00fcchler also underlined that the term \u201cderegulation\u201d should not be misused, as decisions taken in Brussels follow long discussions and are adopted by the 27 EU member states rather than by a separate entity.<\/p>\n
Saint Valentine’s plans<\/p>\n
And finally, which European leader would da Costa e Silva, K\u00fcchler and Charlier go on a date with for Valentine\u2019s Day?<\/p>\n
Find the answer to this question on the podcast.<\/p>\n
Send us your feedback to Brusselsmylove@euronews.com.<\/p>\n
Additional sources \u2022 David Brodheim, sound editor and mixer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mercosur agreement, the EU-India deal, the Antwerp meeting between EU top leaders and industry representatives, and yesterday\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[211,210,228,9097,3287,3350],"class_list":{"0":"post-11640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-brussels","10":"tag-competitiveness","11":"tag-european-economy","12":"tag-mercosur","13":"tag-trade-agreement"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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