Uruguay’s Chamber of Representatives approved this Thursday (26) the agreement between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur, with which the South American country formally ratified it and became the first to do so, after being unanimously supported in the Senate.
Shortly after the start of a session that began at 12:15 pm (same Brasília time), and after the intervention of two deputies, a vote was held in which 91 legislators out of a possible 93 gave the green light to the agreement.
The governing Frente Amplio and the opposition National Party, Colorado Party, Cabildo Abierto and Independent Party supported the agreement, while Identidade Soberana was the only one that voted against.
Mercosur and the EU signed the historic agreement on January 17, after 25 years of negotiations. The negotiations ended on December 6, 2024, during a Mercosur summit in Montevideo, which was attended by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
This Thursday, Argentina’s Senate is also debating an agreement that – according to the EU – “creates an integrated economic space of more than 700 million people, representing around 30% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product and around 35% of global trade.”
Brazil, in turn, approved the agreement on Wednesday in the Chamber of Deputies and the text will be reviewed by the Senate in the coming days, while the Paraguayan government sent the agreement to its Parliament, where it must be processed for ratification.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament is awaiting the EU Court of Justice’s ruling on the legality of the agreement, but legally the European Commission could decide to start applying it provisionally without waiting for the Eurochamber.
