In the case of the agreement with the European Union, we must follow the path of political responsibility

Escuchar la entrada

By Mauri­cio Es­pínola*

In­ter­na­tional pol­i­tics is not child’s play. Every de­ci­sion taken in this field has di­rect reper­cus­sions not only on the re­la­tion­ship be­tween States, but also on the sta­tus and im­age of a coun­try on the global stage. That is why it is es­sen­tial to re­flect on the de­ci­sion of the lower house of Paraguay (Au­gust 2023), to rat­ify the re­jec­tion of the re­peal of Law 6659/​20, an agree­ment signed be­tween Paraguay and the Eu­ro­pean Union in 2020. With this de­ci­sion, the bill will be passed to the Sen­a­tors, where it will be de­fined if the law re­peal­ing the agree­ment is ap­proved, af­ter which it will be passed to the Ex­ec­u­tive Power for its en­act­ment or veto.

It is es­sen­tial to re­mem­ber that this law was sub­mit­ted by the Ex­ec­u­tive Power as an in­ter­na­tional agree­ment. There­fore, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs par­tic­i­pated in the process, and, at the time, it was en­dorsed by the For­eign Af­fairs Com­mit­tee of the lower house, chaired at that time by the Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Honor Col­orado, Wal­ter Harms. These points in­di­cate that the law ap­prov­ing the agree­ment with the Eu­ro­pean Union was not treated as just an­other law, an is­sue that to­day seems to have been for­got­ten.

International politics requires prudence, strategy and, above all, respect for the commitments undertaken. Repealing the agreement with the European Union not only raises doubts about the legal handling of the agreement, but also sends the wrong message about Paraguay’s seriousness and commitment on the world stage

The ques­tions that arise from this sce­nario are nu­mer­ous and pro­found. How is it pos­si­ble that a par­lia­men­tary pact can uni­lat­er­ally re­peal an in­ter­na­tional agree­ment be­tween two sov­er­eign en­ti­ties? Is the na­ture and char­ac­ter of this in­ter­na­tional agree­ment be­ing re­spected by propos­ing its re­vo­ca­tion by Con­gress?

From my po­si­tion as a mem­ber of the house of the Col­orado Party, com­mit­ted to safe­guard­ing our Con­sti­tu­tion and aware of the po­lit­i­cal weight that lies on our party as a gov­ern­ing force, I con­sider that it is im­per­a­tive to re­spect in­sti­tu­tional pre­cepts. Any at­tempt to mod­ify the agree­ment should be made us­ing the clauses stip­u­lated in the agree­ment it­self. The path of in­sti­tu­tion­al­ism must guide us.

By opt­ing for the re­peal of this agree­ment, not only is the re­la­tion­ship with the Eu­ro­pean Union at stake, but it also sends a wor­ry­ing mes­sage to the world about Paraguay’s re­spect for in­ter­na­tional agree­ments. In ad­di­tion, the in­ter­na­tional im­age of our na­tion is com­pro­mised and the se­ri­ous­ness with which we op­er­ate in the diplo­matic field is ques­tioned.

On the other hand, it has been pro­posed to es­tab­lish “ad­denda” as a way of mod­i­fy­ing the agree­ment once it is re­jected. How­ever, a le­git­i­mate doubt arises: What “ad­denda” are we talk­ing about if we pro­ceed to re­peal the agree­ment in ques­tion? These sig­nals that are be­ing re­leased could gen­er­ate even more con­fu­sion and con­flicts.

We need to broaden this dis­cus­sion and take it se­ri­ously. It is cru­cial that the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion and the Chan­cel­lor rec­og­nize the mag­ni­tude of the prob­lem. It is not only a chal­lenge for their re­cently ini­ti­ated ad­min­is­tra­tions, but a po­ten­tial ob­sta­cle for the well-be­ing of the Paraguayan peo­ple.

In­ter­na­tional pol­i­tics re­quires pru­dence, strat­egy and, above all, re­spect for the com­mit­ments un­der­taken. Re­peal­ing the agree­ment with the Eu­ro­pean Union not only raises doubts about the le­gal han­dling of the agree­ment, but also sends the wrong mes­sage about Paraguay’s se­ri­ous­ness and com­mit­ment on the world stage.

As rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the peo­ple, we must be­have with re­spect, al­ways pro­tect­ing the best in­ter­ests of our na­tion. The gov­ern­ment of San­ti­ago Peña should not be­gin its days con­vey­ing hard­ships, lit­tle strate­gic vi­sion and a man­age­ment that com­pli­cates us in the in­ter­na­tional sce­nario.

* Na­tional Mem­ber of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives 2023-2028

Cover im­age: El Trueno