18/11/24 (Agence Europe) – In a joint letter dated 15 November, 78 organisations (including BusinessEurope, SpiritsEurope and Acea) call on the EU to rapidly conclude the trade agreement with Mercosur. The signatories believe that the agreement can help overcome the challenges posed by geopolitical instability. They point out that trade between the two regions represented more than €159 billion in 2022, which equals a large number of jobs. On his arrival at the Agriculture Council in Brussels on Monday 18 November, the Spanish Minister for Agriculture, Luis Planas, also indicated that he was going to “stress the importance of the agreement with Mercosur for the European Union” to his counterparts. On the same day, France and Italy reiterated their opposition to the agreement: Italian agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida and French foreign affairs minister Jean-Noël Barrot described the text as unacceptable. See the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/edf (LM)