EU-Brazil

Background

During the First EU-Brazil Summit held in Lisbon on 4 July 2007, the EU agreed to build a Strategic Partnership with Brazil.  A Joint Action Plan (JAP) was endorsed during the Second EU-Brazil Summit in Rio de Janeiro on 22 December 2008.

The JAP provides an opportunity to establish a bilateral dialogue with Brazil on regulatory frameworks.  Since Brazil is the largest country of the Mercosul region, advances in this area would serve to facilitate future progress on regulatory frameworks between the EU and Mercosul, in the event that Mercosul moves towards the adoption of common rules and standards. 

A stronger dialogue with Brazil can achieve a double result: improve the conditions for investment and trade in our economic interest, and facilitate EU-Mercosul dialogue and negotiations. 

A revised JAP will be adopted at the summit on 4 October 2011 and it will cover the period 2011-2014.

EU-Brazil Business Summits

The JAP also foresees the regular organization of EU-Brazil Business Summits, with the involvement of SMEs, with a view to reinforcing business to government dialogue. So far four Business Summits have taken place.

• On 4 July 2007, the First EU-Brazil Business Summit was organized in Lisbon by the Portuguese Industrial Association – Business Confederation (AIP-CE) and the Confederation of Portuguese Industry (CIP) in co-operation with the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI) and Business Europe, back-to-back with the First EU-Brazil Summit .
• The Second EU-Brazil Business Summit [227 KB] , entitled "EU-Brazil Partnership: challenges and opportunities for the next years", took place in Rio de Janeiro on 22 December 2008, back-to-back with the Second EU-Brazil Summit . 
• The Third EU-Brazil Business Summit [56 KB] entitled "Building cooperation for the post-crisis world" took place in Stockholm on 6 October 2009 in parallel with the Third EU-Brazil Summit .
• The Fourth EU-Brazil Business Summit [495 KB] , "EU-Brazil Partnership: cooperation strategies for enhancing bilateral business", was held in Brazil on 14 July 2010 back-to-back with the Fourth EU-Brazil Summit [59 KB] .
• The fifth summit is scheduled to take place in Brussels on 4 October 2011.

EU-Brazil Regulatory and Industrial Policy Dialogues

Pilot sectoral industrial and regulatory dialogues have been created to complement the relevant EU-Mercosul discussions. They cover: textiles and clothing, forest-based industries, steel, non-ferrous metals and minerals. Terms of Reference for these Dialogues [250 KB] were officially signed on 14 September 2009 and  first meetings were successful.