While boarding in Brussels, his delegation was informed that the second leg of the journey had been cancelled, resulting in a delay of around 12 hours. That made it impossible for him to arrive in time for a meeting in Rio de Janeiro with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The Brazil meeting was in part intended as a political thank you to Lula for his role in getting the Mercosur deal over the line — even though negotiations were almost derailed at December’s European Council.
At that meeting of EU leaders, a last-minute intervention by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni forced the EU delegation, led by von der Leyen and António Costa, to postpone a signing ceremony planned for the day after the summit in Brazil.
The spokesperson said Costa and his team did not fly to Frankfurt after learning of the disruption and began exploring alternative travel options.
Despite missing the Rio talks, Costa is still expected to attend the formal signing ceremony of the EU-Mercosur agreement in Asunción, Paraguay, scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. local time (5 p.m. Brussels time).
Despite being on the same negotiating team, the European Council and European Commission delegations travelled to South America separately.
The European Commission declined to provide details of von der Leyen’s travel for security reasons but confirmed that the Commission president was already in Brazil ahead of the meeting with Lula and the signing ceremony.
Camille Gijs contributed to this report.