Relations between the European Union and Mercosur were established soon after the entry into force of the latter bloc. European Union-Mercosur relations

Being both the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

(EU) and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) custom unions, their relation has been however described as "asymmetrical", both in terms of their contrasting stage of economic development and degree of institutionalization. The 'EU-Mercosur Inter-regional Framework for Co-operation Agreement' was signed on 15 December 1995 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, dealing with trade, economics and information exchange between the two blocs. Despite the framework being a preliminary stage for trade liberalization, by 1998 most agricultural ministers in the EU member states still opposed starting negotiations with Mercosur. The framework fully entered into force on 1 July 1999. In June 2019, in the context of the

2019 G20 Osaka summit The 2019 G20 Osaka summit was the fourteenth meeting of the G20, a forum of 19 countries and the EU that together represent most of the world economy. It was held on 28–29 June 2019 at the International Exhibition Center in Osaka. It was ...

, representatives of both blocs announced they had reached an "historic" agreement vis-à-vis a free trade treaty. If ratified, the

European Union–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement The European Union–Mercosur free trade agreement is a proposed free trade agreement on which the European Union and Mercosur reached agreement in principle in 2019. The planned deal was announced on 28 June at the 2019 G20 Osaka summit after t ...

should become the first free trade treaty signed by Mercosur with a major trade bloc, in this case the EU was at the time its biggest trade and investment partner.

References

Bibliography

* * European Union and third organisations Mercosur {{International-trade-stub