The final decision on the representativeness criterion to be adopted by the Mercosur Parliament (Parlasur), which was planned for Friday (24th), will only be adopted in an extraordinary meeting of the Common Market Council, that might be held in August. The postponement was announced by the chairman of the Brazilian Representation in the Parliament, Deputy José Paulo Tóffano (PV-SP).

The proposal had already been approved in a political agreement in the Paraguayan capital, at the end of April, between the Mercosur members - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Through this agreement, Brazil would elect 37 Representatives; and in a second stage, in 2014, the number would be 75.

This proposal should have been delivered to the Common Market Council in the last meeting, which coincided with the summit meeting of the presidents of the countries that make part of the group. However, Paraguayan Representatives, during the meeting of the Parlasur Governing Board that preceded the summit meeting, reopened the issue and asked for the postponement of the proposal delivery.

Itaipu
The reaction of the Paraguayan Representative regarding the implantation of the political agreement occurred in the moment in which Paraguay and Brazil discussed, at the eve of the summit meeting and the meeting of the Common Market Council, an agreement intended to enlarge the compensations to Paraguay due to the use of energy from the binational hydroelectric power plant of Itaipu. The Paraguayan press has been adopting a very critical position regarding Brazil in such event.

At the same time, reactions were noticed in the other three countries of the group regarding the Paraguayan proposal of creating a Mercosur supranational court. The creation of this court would be, according to the political agreement, the counterpart to the decision of ensuring larger workbench, in the regional Parliament, to the countries with larger populations.

New Presidency
In August 10th, the group in charge of implementing the political agreement for defining the proportionality criterion will meet again, this time under the new Presidency pro tempore in Uruguay in the Mercosur Parliament. The Presidency pro tempore of Paraguay was closed at the end of this semester.
In the following week, from the 17th, it will be held a sitting in the Parliament. If an agreement is reached, the proposal of dividing the number of chairs per country may still be sent in August to the Common Market Council, which will examine in extraordinary meeting.

Ongoing project
Meanwhile, it is still being arranged in the Chamber the bill (PL 5279/09, of Representative Carlos Zarattini (PT-SP)) that defines the form of election of the 37 Brazilian Representatives to be elected in 2010, within the first stage of implantation of the currently suspended political agreement.
The project needs to be approved by the Chamber and by the Senate until the end of September, so that the rules may be in force in the 2010 elections. In the opinion of the chairman of the Brazilian Representation, it is still possible to reach an agreement with the other countries of the group and approve the bill in Brazil within the next two months.
“Things may proceed simultaneously, they are not exclusionary”, said Tóffano, for whom the approval of the bill by the National Congress could, inclusively, help on the negotiations with the other countries.

From the Newsroom/NA
With information from Senate News Agency
Translation – Grupo Solucion/Thamara Mello