Tuesday, June 2, 2026
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Online Zoom
June 2, 2026
GEO-LAC: The EU–Mercosur Agreement Enters into Force
Event Series: GEO-LAC: Latin America in the New Geoeconomic Order
After more than 25 years of negotiations, the EU–Mercosur Agreement is entering a decisive new phase. Its provisional application represents a historic milestone in the relationship between Europe and South America and opens a new chapter for trade, investment, sustainability, regulatory cooperation, and political dialogue between both regions.
This GEO-LAC event will examine the agreement in the context of the new geoeconomic order. At a time of growing geopolitical tensions, shifting alliances, technological disruption, and rising protectionism, the agreement sends a powerful signal in favor of rules-based trade, strategic interregional cooperation, and closer ties between two democratic regions. The conversation will bring together leading policymakers and trade experts who were directly involved in, or closely connected to, the process that made the agreement possible. The panel will explore why the agreement moved forward now, what challenges remain for its implementation, and how it may reshape EU–Latin America relations in a fragmented global economy.
The discussion will address the commercial, political, and strategic implications of the agreement, including its potential effects on trade flows, investment, value chains, sustainability, environmental cooperation, and regional integration within Mercosur.
Featuring
Diana Mondino is the former minister of foreign affairs of Argentina. She is an economist from the National University of Córdoba with a degree in business management from IESE Business School. Mondino has experience in risk assessment and market analysis and has served on the boards of companies like Pampa Energía, Banco Supervielle, and Loma Negra. She founded Risk Analysis, later acquired by Standard & Poor’s, where she served as director for Latin America. Mondino entered politics in 2023 as a deputy candidate for La Libertad Avanza, later becoming minister of foreign affairs under President Javier Milei.
Rupert Schlegelmilch is the former director of the European Commission’s Directorate-general for Trade and Economic Security (DG TRADE)and former EU chief negotiator for the EU–Mercosur Agreement. He is a former German diplomat, senior official, and ambassador of the EU (Commission and External Action Service) and experienced trade negotiator. After law and political science studies in Freiburg and Berlin he joined the German Foreign Service in 1987 and the European Commission Directorate General for External Relations in 1993. From 1998 to 2003 he worked on WTO matters in the European Commission Delegation in Geneva. From 2003 to 2010, he was responsible in DG TRADE for the EU’s bilateral trade relations first with China, and later for trade relations with the Americas and South Asia, South Korea, and ASEAN. In 2011 he became the director in DG TRADE for Trade in Services, Investment, Government Procurement, and the protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). He has been the EU’s chief negotiator for the EU-Singapore, the EU-Ukraine, the EU-Peru/Colombia, and the EU-Mercosur free trade agreements. From 2016 to 2019 Schlegelmilch served as the European Union’s ambassador to the OECD and UNESCO in Paris. In October 2019 he returned to DG TRADE in Brussels; he served as the acting deputy director-general of DG TRADE from 2020 to 2022. He coordinated the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) from its inception 2021 to 2024 After his retirement in early 2024 he continued an assignment leading the EU’s Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the Mercosur countries. Since 2024 he is also the chair of the OECD Investment Committee and a visiting professor at the College of Europe.
Tatiana Prazeres is Brazil’s Foreign Trade Secretary, at the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services (MDIC) since January 2023. With over 20 years of experience in trade, she has worked in government, private sector, international organizations and academia in Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Geneva and Beijing. Previously, she held the same position of Foreign Trade Secretary of Brazil between 2011 to 2013. Tatiana Prazeres was a Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the World Trade Organization in Geneva between 2013-2018. While living in China between 2019 and 2021, she was a Senior Fellow at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE). In 2022, she was the Head Director of the Department of Trade and International Relations at the Federation of Industries of Sao Paulo (Fiesp). A career government official, Tatiana Prazeres holds a Ph.D. in International Relations, a master degree in Law, and degrees in both Law and International Relations. In 2014, she was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Nicolás Albertoni is a visiting fellow at the Georgetown Americas Institute, where he will organize a series of events on trade for the Latin America and the Global Economy (LAGE) program . He previously served as vice minister of foreign affairs of Uruguay (2022-2025). He has authored several articles and books on Latin America Development and Integration, including Trade Protectionism in an Uncertain and Interconnected Global Economy (Routledge, 2024). Albertoni has two Ph.D.s and three master’s degrees (one from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service) in the areas of political science, economics, and international relations. He is also an alumnus of the Global Competitiveness Leadership Program (GCL, 2012) at Georgetown University. In 2021, he received the Order of Arete from the University of Southern California, the highest honor accorded for an academic contribution. In 2023, he was recognized by the Club of Madrid as one of the 30 decision-makers and leaders around the world, and in 2018, he was included in the list of Global Americans New Generation of Public Intellectuals.