First session of the LXII Extraordinary Meeting of the Mercosur Common Market Group takes place this Saturday

Asuncion, IP Agency.- With the participation of the national coordinators of the Common Market Group (GMC) and technical delegations from the Mercosur countries, the first session of the LXII Extraordinary Meeting of the Common Market Group is taking place this Saturday in the Historic Building of the Port of Asunción. The Paraguayan ambassador Patricia Frutos is presiding, under the Pro Tempore Presidency of Paraguay.

The Common Market Group oversees the day-to-day functioning of Mercosur and is the second decision-making body of the bloc. It is made up of representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economy and Finance, and Industry and Commerce of the bloc’s member countries.

Each Mercosur State Party has one vote and decisions are made by consensus and with the presence of all delegations. It makes its decisions through three bodies.

Tomorrow, Sunday, the highest body of Mercosur, the Common Market Council (CMC), will meet. This body is the political leader of the integration process and is led by the Foreign Ministries. It is the first decision-making body of the bloc.

The activity will end on Monday 8th with the Summit of Heads of State of Mercosur and Associated States, where the presidents will announce the decisions taken during the days of meetings of the authorities of the bloc.

On this occasion, Paraguay, led by President Santiago Peña, will hand over the Pro Tempore Presidency of Mercosur to Uruguay, represented by its President Luis Lacalle Pou. The rotation of the Pro Tempore Presidencies takes place every six months in alphabetical order. The following semester it will be Argentina’s turn, and so on among the Member States.

Mercosur was established 33 years ago through the Treaty of Asunción and was structurally organized according to the Ouro Preto Protocol in 1994.