Eurotopics.net

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had hoped to sign a free trade agreement with the Mercosur countries this Saturday in Brazil. However, a minority led by France and Italy has formed in the European Council in Brussels and blocked the move in view of fierce protests from the agricultural sector. Now, the deal, which has been under negotiation for 25 years, has been postponed to January.

Brexit also meant Britain's withdrawal from the EU's successful Erasmus exchange programme. Now a deal has been reached under which European students will be able to spend a year at a British university or doing training in the UK again - and vice versa. Commentators discuss to what extent this hails a reset in relations between Britain and Europe.

Alexander Butyagin, a archaeologist at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, has been detained in Poland at the request of Ukraine, which now plans to seek his extradition. Butyagin has led excavations in Crimea since 1999, but as Ukraine has not granted permits for such work since the Russian occupation in 2014, it regards the excavations as the partial destruction of cultural heritage sites.

A key question is on the table at today's EU summit in Brussels: should the EU grant Ukraine a loan for tens of billions of euros guaranteed by frozen Russian assets? If the proposal goes through, Russia would formally retain ownership of the funds, but its access to them would be permanently blocked. Any attempts by Moscow to claim the assets - most of which are held by the financial institution Euroclear in Belgium - would only be accepted if it agreed to pay war reparations.

Italy has become the EU second member state after France to voice doubts about the EU Commission's plans to sign the Mercosur trade agreement on Saturday. The deal is "premature", Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday. Commentators also observe that the opposition to the free trade agreement has by no means been overcome despite safeguard clauses for agricultural products.