RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro said that the Brussels-based European External Action Service (EEAS) had been assigned to assess the number of fires in South America, including the Amazon rainforest.
The information, according to the Brazilian government, was passed on to the president by German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a telephone conversation on Friday afternoon, August 30th. According to him, the discussion was fruitful.
“Today, I had a very productive conversation with Chancellor Angela Merkel, who reaffirmed Brazilian sovereignty in our Amazon region. At the request of the German government, the European External Action Service has been mobilized to assess the situation of the fires in South America”, said the president, in a message on social media.
In an official note, the Presidency described the exchange as “frank and cordial”. During the conversation, Bolsonaro thanked the German Chancellor for the foreign countries’ efforts to cooperate with Brazil.
“The president said that it was a frank and cordial contact in which he thanked the countries for their efforts to cooperate with Brazil in its mission to tackle the seasonal fires that are now affecting the Legal Amazon,” it read.
The Palácio do Planalto added that the president had updated the Chancellor on the initiatives undertaken so far, such as the cooperation of the Armed Forces in the fight against illegal fires, and reaffirmed Brazil’s stance in refusing to accept discussions on Brazilian sovereignty.
“He confirmed Brazil’s position that it would not consider any discussions on the sovereignty of our territory, as well as on the governance of any resources and support that might be granted to Brazil,” he said.
The Brazilian government further reports that, during their conversation, Bolsonaro told Merkel that his criticism of French President Emmanuel Macron was due to a “personal” stance in response to the “attacks” by the French.
In his social media message, Bolsonaro further stated that he had been notified that the European External Action Service had found that the area of fires in Brazil had decreased this year when compared to the previous year.
However, the president did not produce documents supporting this data. According to INPE (National Institute for Space Research), the country has so far had 72,843 fire outbreaks, an increase of 83 percent over the same period last year.
The cordial tone adopted by Bolsonaro in his conversation with Merkel marks a change in relation to the beginning of the environmental crisis.
He even ironically criticized the German government’s decision to suspend the remittance of funds for Amazon forest protection projects. “I wanted to send a message to my dear lady Angela Merkel, who suspended R$80 million for the Amazon. Take this money and reforest Germany, okay? It’s in much more need there than it is here,” he had said.
European External Action Service (EEAS)
The European External Action Service (EEAS) is the diplomatic service and foreign and defense ministry of the European Union (EU). The EEAS is led by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR), who is also president of the Foreign Affairs Council and vice-president of the European Commission, and carries out the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, including the Common Security and Defence Policy.
The EEAS does not propose or implement policy in its name but prepares acts to be adopted by the High Representative, the European Commission, or the Council. The EEAS is also in charge of EU diplomatic missions and intelligence and crisis management structures.