Brazil decided to adopt a decisive position in this Monday’s parliamentary meeting for Mercosur in Montevideo, Uruguay, to deal with the constant delays in the definition of criteria for citizen representation for future elections in parliament. The sixth extraordinary Parlasur session- that came to be suspended right after it began at the request of the Brazilian Representation, was reopened after a debate in which terms of a new document were defined that are to be approved by the Floor.

According to the Deputy Dr. Rosinha (PT-PR), the current president of Parlasur, this agreement contemplates the creation of a Court of Justice whose implementation is considered to be fundamental to Paraguay. In order to define the nature and functions of the course, it was decided to create a committee comprised of Mercosur representatives and diplomatic representatives from the chancelleries of member countries. These definitions will also be a part of the document to be approved by the Common Market Council.

The preliminary agreement on the proceedings also foresees sending the documents to the Common Market Council, asking to carry out a meeting as soon as possible in order to approve the new criteria for representation. The definition for the number of possible seats allotted to each country will be brought about by the council, which will come from the recommendations of the Mercosur Parliament, according to parliament’s constitutive protocol.

Number of representatives
As to the rules about the proportionality of national representatives in the 2010-2014 period, the political agreement supports an understanding under which, in 2010, Brazil elects 37 representatives and Argentina will have 26 representatives. Paraguay already elected 18, the same number allotted to Uruguay.

Threat
During the meeting, Senator Geraldo Mesquita Júnior (PMDB-AC) affirmed that the lack of a definitive position with respect to each country’s number of representatives would threaten Parlasur’s own future. “Either we want a parliament or we do not,” he warned.

The main obstacles to the concretization of the agreement have arisen from the representatives of Paraguay. Senator Efraim Morais (DEM-PB) suggested that, in case the Paraguayan representation did not accept a solution, the Brazilian representatives would harden their approval in National Congress on the recent agreement signed with Paraguay to increase payments for energy to Paraguay for the Itaipu binational hydroelectric plant.

Reporting - Rejane Xavier
Editing- Regina Céli Assumpção
Translation - Grupo Solucion-SP Language/Patrick Richard Swan