New president of Parlasur wants to bring parliament closer to society
This Monday night (17) the Uruguayan representative, Juan José Dominguez, from the Broad Front Party, assumed the pro tempore presidency of the Mercosur Parliament (Parlasur) by saying that he is willing to bring societies from the countries that comprise the alliance closer together- Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Among his priorities for his six-month long mandate are to stimulate the approval by national legislators of the Statute of the Mercosur Cooperatives, and to defend familiar agriculture and investments as to better the infrastructure for those countries that belong to the alliance.
An old revolutionary, musician and barber in his youth, Dominguez fought against the military dictatorship in his country in the 60s and spent more than 16 years in prison, in addition to one year in hiding.
Opposition in Uruguay
Dominguez will face resistance to the consolidation of Parlasur in his own country. In an interview on the day of his inauguration, Dominguez declared: “we are having discussions with the internal forces of our country to find an ‘out’ with respect to parliament. The opposition holds a very stiff position.”
He considers it to be “very difficult” for Uruguay to elect its own representatives as soon as next elections. Dominguez hopes for “some type of solution, some constitutional reform” that permits the creation of an important parliamentary force, will take the regionalization project forward. For him, only parliament can provide the visibility because the results of work groups from Mercosur have not been sufficient lately. “Parliament is a resonance box, it is a place to debate”, he ponders.
Yet he recognizes that in Uruguay there are now, “enormous difficulties with the opposition to consolidate Mercosur because they aspire to continue to live as fractured nations and not to work together,” he laments.
The role of parliament
The function of parliament is to propose laws, although not directly applicable, since they are recommended to the Common Market Council and then taken to the diverse national parliaments. “We have not yet acted with Positive Law,” recognizes Dominguez.
Parliament also coordinates suggestions. “In a seminar in Porto Alegre, we made ten recommendations to Mercosur with respect to safety on the highways,” he exemplifies. “For example, there are places where there is still an enormous slowness for cargo and tourist transportation vehicles to pass. There are problems with customs, migrations, and ministries that do not allow neither ‘this’ nor ‘that’ entry.”
Among the initiatives in Parlasur, Dominguez highlights the debate about the hydrology in the Patos and Mirim Lakes in search of a free flow for transports; contacts with private capital with respect to hydrovias in order to improve the passage through the Andes mountain range. “This has to do with the functioning of the entire Mercosur region, because freight through the Magellan strait is very expensive,” he explains.
Parliament approaches itself to the population
Last year (2008), Parlasur strongly dedicated itself to energy issues. “We have been to all of the hydroelectric dams, we have been to all of the refineries in Venezuela. It is not a simple issue, it is not easy. What we can say is that when we need to have a public hearing about issues like transportation, for example, the hearing will be full of protagonists, truck drivers and businessmen.”
Venezuela’s entry
For Dominguez, Venezuela’s entry into Mercosur is important for the development of the alliance as to get beyond the political discussion about the country’s government. “Sometimes our countries radicalize the political discussion as a result of the controversial characteristics that Venezuela possesses. This is the democratic landmark at which we find ourselves, some are in favor of the Bolivarian revolution, others are not,” he recognizes.
From Newsroom/RX
With information from the Senate Agency
Translation - Grupo Solucion-SP Language/Patrick Richard Swan