The European Union reschedules the signing of the agreement with Mercosur and sets a new date.

The new objective is to sign it on January 12th, with Paraguay as the planned venue, which would be a key step in closing a negotiation that has lasted over 25 years and has a high economic, political, and institutional impact for both blocs. The decision came after the community executive had to suspend, at the last moment, the signing originally planned for December 13th in Brazil, due to the lack of internal consensus among the EU member states. The resistance of France and Italy once again blocked the agreement and exposed, once more, the internal tensions facing the European bloc regarding trade openness with Mercosur. The postponement announced the previous day represented a political setback for the strategy promoted by the European Commission, along with Germany and Spain, which had pushed to move forward without further delays. However, far from abandoning the process, the community executive quickly resumed its efforts and set a new date on the table. According to a ...