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D-BR: Delegation for relations with the Federative Republic of Brazil

The European Parliament's Delegation for relations with the Federative Republic of Brazil was created on 7 July 2014. Until that point, Brazil had been the only country in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) region that did not have its own delegation, despite its enormous geo-political significance: it is the country with the fifth largest surface area and population in the world. This had a significant influence on the decision to establish a dedicated delegation.

Purpose

The Delegation's main purpose is to monitor the EU-Brazil Strategic Partnership, which was established at the first EU-Brazil Summit in July 2007.

The Delegation will also work to strengthen relations between its members and counterparts in the Brazilian Congress. The Delegation and the Brazilian Congress have insisted that Congress must establish an institutional body, as a counterpart to the European Parliament's Delegation.

Every year, the members of the Delegation will visit, and receive visits from, their counterparts in the Brazilian Congress.

Members and Chair

The Brazil delegation counts 14 full members, and the same number of substitute members.
The Chair is José Manuel Fernandes, a Portuguese member of the European People's Party. He is supported by two Vice-Chairs: Manuel Pizarro (S&D, Portugal) and Anna Cavazzini (Greens/EFA, Germany).

Overlapping memberships

Members of the Brazil delegation are also Members of the European Parliament's Delegation for relations with the Mercosur Countries (DMER) and the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat).

Areas of interest

The topics covered by the Brazil Delegation are wide-ranging and extend beyond the bilateral Strategic Partnership. In the Delegation meeting of 23 January 2020, the Chair presented the work programme of the Delegation for this parliamentary term: One of the priorities of this delegation will be to monitor the ratification and implementation of the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement. Furthermore, the work of D-BR will be focused on improving EU cooperation with Brazil in all areas of mutual interest, such as
  • research and innovation
  • economic cooperation, where the role of European financial instruments and the participation of the European Investment Bank could increase
  • climate change and sustainable energy
  • initiatives to improve the situation in the Amazon with a positive impact on its sustainability and the environment
  • human rights
  • cybersecurity, including cyberterrorism
  • migration
  • the fight against poverty