The foreign ministers of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay have reached an agreement on Monday (18), on the future membership of the Mercosur Parliament (Parlasur). They ratified in Montevideo political understanding signed last year to implement the criterion of citizen representation, providing a greater number of chairs for the countries with highest number of inhabitants.

The agreement paves the way for direct elections for Representatives who will represent their countries in Parlasur. From 2011, the report says, the first stage of implementation for the proportionality criterion will start to define the parties. Brazil has 37 representatives while Argentina has 26 and Paraguay and Uruguay will maintain its existing parties, each of 18 representatives.  From 2015, 75 representatives will represent Brazil. Argentina will have 43 representatives in Montevideo, home of Parlasur. In addition, Paraguay and Uruguay will keep the 18 representatives each.

Proximity to the citizen
Minister Celso Amorim considered the agreement as important for the unity of Parlasur within the regional bloc. He stressed that understanding will enable the holding of free elections, which will bring the average citizen closer to the Mercosur Parliament. "The decision is very important, because Mercosur wants not only to promote development and trade, but also democracy. Nothing is more representative of a democracy than a parliament that reflects the population, "said the minister.

Deputy Dr. Rosinha, who replaced the president of Parlasur that meeting, Senator Aloizio Mercadante, noted that there is a project (PL 5279/09) the Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense regulating the Brazilian electoral process in Parlasul. Rapporteur of the proposal on the committee, Dr. Rosinha wants to suggest that direct elections to Parlasul shall occur as early as 2012. Until now, only Paraguay held direct elections to choose their representatives.

Court of Justice
The deputy also reported that there was an agreement between the Ministers for that the implementation of the Court of Justice of Mercosur - a claim of the Paraguayan representation - not be simultaneous to the criterion deployment of citizen representation. The theme will consist of an agenda of Mercosur.

The meeting of the four foreign ministers took place at the residence of the Permanent Representative of Brazil with Mercosur, Ambassador Régis Arslanian, and an extraordinary sitting of the Common Market Council was considered, a master decision-making body of the bloc, composed of ministers of foreign affairs and economics.