The Committee on External Relations and National Defense (CRE) approved on Thursday (17) a favorable report over five legislative decree bills (PDS) regarding international agreements signed by the Brazilian government. One of them (PDS 23/07) approves amendments to International Atomic Energy Agency Statute, that, among other measures, increases the participation of representatives from Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East and South Asia in the institution’s Governors Commission.

- It’s a democratic change on devices of decision making at the agency – said the bill’s rapporteur, senator Cristovam Buarque (PDT-DF) The second approved bill, PDS 26/07, had senator Romeu Tuma (DEM-SP) as ad hoc rapporteur and ratified the text of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, settled in New York, in 1961. The statelessness – absence of nationality bonds – is described in the report read by Tuma as an “offence against the rights of people.”

The committee also approved a favorable report to PDS 30/07. It had Rosalba Ciarlini (DEM-RN) as rapporteur and was designed for approving the Memorandum of Understanding between Brazil and Cuba for Technical Cooperation on Animal and Plant Health. PDS 31/07 was also approved. It had senator Marcelo Crivella (PRB-RJ) as rapporteur and approves the agreement with Mozambique on Technical Cooperation on Health and Plant’s Health fields. The last agreement approved by the committee was PDS 33/07. It was ratified by Brazil and Romania and establishes partial exemption for visas. Mozarildo Cavalcanti (PTB-RR) was the ad hoc rapporteur for the project .

By Mozarildo’s initiative, the committee decided to create the Brazil-Guiana Parliamentary Group. The rapporteur, senator Augusto Botelho (PT-RR), remarked Roraima state and the Guyana have got savanna areas with great potential for sugarcane production. The committee also approved another initiative by Mozarildo, a request for the invitation of general secretary for the Treaty on Organization of Amazon Cooperation, Rosalía Arteaga Serrano, to talk about global warming.

At Romeu Tuma’s request, general Benedito de Barros Moreira will give a lecture, at the committee, about the World New Geopolitics and its reflexes on Brazil. At the end, two petitions, by senator Marcelo Crivella (PRB-RJ), were approved. Both of them concerned about public hearings - one with diplomat Evandro Didonet, Itamaraty’s Director for International Negotiations, about a trade agreement between Mercosul and the European Union, and the other, related to possible risks to national sovereignty caused by Brazilian satellites’ privatization.