Members of the Mercosur Parliament (Parlasur) said on Tuesday (06) that the group’s scope might go beyond commercial interests, also prioritizing environmental issues in debates and negotiations. In a seminar on the region biodiversity held in the Senate, two Brazilian and a Paraguayan parliamentarian advocated greater participation of Parlasur in negotiations between Executives from the member countries.

The measure would favor the full integration of nations sharing different biome, as mentioned by Deputy José Paulo Tóffan, Geraldo Mesquita Júnior and the Paraguayan parliamentarian, Carmelo Benítez, who is the Vice-Chairman of Parlasur Environment Commission.

"About 30% or 40% of proposals approved by Parlasur are concerned with the environment; however, the executive powers are still not pointed toward this way and don’t take the Parliament into account in its treats”, said the Chairman of Brazilian Representation in Parlasur, J. P. Tóffano. The Deputy also lamented Parlasur decisions being indicative instead of deliberative. This means governments may adopt them or not.

Equivalent laws

The Parliamentarians, however, emphasized that there should be equivalence of laws from different countries concerning the environment, as often the same problems occur. This is what happens with power generation by Brazil and Paraguay from water sources between both countries.

“The rules shall be equally met by both sides. We all need the same obligation to preserve the Guarani aquifer”, said Carmelo Benítez about the underground fresh water reserve located between Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.

Regarding the aquifer, the Argentinean lawyer and specialist in legal duty of Mercosur, Alejandro Perotti, warned that the group needs to establish an agreement on its management as soon as possible. “The UN [United Nations] intends to declare the aquifer as a world heritage. The only way to prevent this and ensure the sovereignty of the region’s countries is to establish an agreement which is about to be signed for some years now”, he said.

According to Perotti, Parlasur should still be the agency controlling the application of the Mercorsur's Declaration on the Strategy of Biodiversity, signed in 2006 by the group’s Ministries of Environment. The document defines guidelines and priorities to integrate actions of the countries in order to preserve biodiversity, its sustainable use and fair sharing of benefits. According to the lawyer, the guidelines would be better met if Parlasur was committed to supervise them.

Regional development

At the seminar, the parliamentarians also reminded that the decisions regarding environment will cause economic effects on the group's societies, bringing development to the region. “Are we interested in having poor neighbors? The countries have much more to provide than just funds. Our biome is unique and we should take care of it", said Tóffano.

The Senator Geraldo Mesquita added that peoples involved are still not aware of what the group may mean to South America. “People need to appropriate of Mercosur, which is currently a bureaucratic structure essentially concerned with economy”.

The objective of the meeting is to discuss solutions to environmental problems already identified by government and non-government organizations.

Translation-SP Language/Grupo Solucion –Thiago de Lira Capatti