The foreign ministers’ gathering could set the tone for the leaders’s meeting, with positions seeking the flexibility of Mercosur rules so that each one gets preferential extra-regional agreements.

Press sources confirmed the presence of the president of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, whose participation raises expectations about signing a technical agreement between both blocks, who have been negotiating a trade treaty for a quarter of a century. Von der Leyen plans to meet with President Lacalle Pou.

Beyond the technical progress in negotiations, the agreement faces political difficulties due to resistance from some European countries, pressured by mobilizations of their farmers against an arrangement between Mercosur and the European Union (EU).

The EC has the authority from its EU partners to terminate negotiations at its discretion, but the agreement must then be ratified by parliaments.

Mercosur and the EC negotiated last week in Brasilia, focusing on compensation for the environmental agenda imposed by the Europeans for all food and agricultural product imports.

Brazil also proposed reopening the chapter on government purchases to defend its “reindustrialization” policy.

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