In conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) stated that the new environmental demands from Europeans to close the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur were "offensive" and "inadmissible".
In March of this year, the bloc presented an additional term (side letter) with new environmental demands that go beyond those determined by the Paris Agreement and now include sanctions for alleged non-compliance with targets.
Lula had already criticized the demands in public and in a conversation with the French president in June, characterizing the measures as "threats".
The Brazilian leader returned to the spotlight in a bilateral meeting with Macron on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi. And he told the French president that, at this moment, it is a political decision for the EU to return to the original text. In the Brazilian government's view, the demands were designed for the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro, which was accumulating setbacks in environmental policy and would not be fair in the context of the Lula government.
According to reports from authorities present in the conversation, Macron said he understood the Brazilian complaint but pointed out that it was a decision within the scope of the European Commission.
Translated by Cassy Dias