{"id":34275,"date":"2026-02-16T22:22:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/02\/16\/mercosur-deal-has-positive-aspects-former-italian-pm\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T22:22:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:22:49","slug":"mercosur-deal-has-positive-aspects-former-italian-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/02\/16\/mercosur-deal-has-positive-aspects-former-italian-pm\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercosur deal has ‘positive aspects’ – former Italian PM"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Mercosur trade deal, which was controversially opposed by Ireland has “positive aspects” which will overcome its other features, the former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta said while on a visit to Dublin.<\/p>\n

Last month Government voted against the trade deal between the EU and four South American countries following strong objections from the farming lobby.<\/p>\n

The European Parliament voted for the European Court of Justice to assess whether the deal meets EU treaties which could hold the deal up.<\/p>\n

Mr Letta said Mercosur was part of a broader policy of opening trade links which should be part of the EU’s response to US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

“The main reaction to Trump has to be: one Europe one market, second opening trade routes…third showing that we can support Ukraine standing alone,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Letta was speaking at the launch of COMPETE the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in Dublin City University coordinated by the Dublin European Law Institute.<\/p>\n

The former Italian Prime Minister, who authored a report on revamping the Single Market, met the Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne today and met Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin last week.<\/p>\n

He said the Irish presidency of the European Union will play a “critical role” in the acceleration of the Savings and Investment Union, which is the EU\u2019s project aimed at creating more integrated financial systems.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media in DCU, Mr Letta said Ireland\u2019s presidency would also be important for greater integration of energy and connectivity.<\/p>\n

Ireland is supportive of the Savings and Investment Union although the Taoiseach last week there were concerns about a single supervisor authority for the project.<\/p>\n

Mr Letta said some countries including Ireland had “some doubts” and “scepticism” about the supervisory system.<\/p>\n

But he said the Savings and Investment Union should use a similar model as central banks where national authorities cooperate with a central authority.<\/p>\n

Mr Letta said taking steps accelerate competitiveness would reach a “crucial moment” during Ireland\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

He added: “The most effective reaction to Trump is to create one market.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mercosur trade deal, which was controversially opposed by Ireland has “positive aspects” which will overcome its other features, the former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta said while on a visit to Dublin. Last month Government voted against the trade deal between the EU and four South American countries following strong objections from the farming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}