The Government cancels a business forum with European businessmen at the last minute

They were thinking of gathering some 700 business and political men and women between Monday, June 1 and Tuesday, June 2 at the Palacio Libertad, and many of them had their plane tickets purchased and their hotels reserved in the long-sighted European way.

Therefore, the cancellation – described by official sources as a “postponement”without convincing explanations—generated much discomfort among the 27 countries that were going to participate in the so-called EU Business and Investment Forum in Argentina 2026.

Another fact that baffled the European foreign ministries is that they canceled it after having planned it for a long time, when it was already officially announced, with forms to fill out and other formalities. And they suspended it without any consideration, shortly after the provisional free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union came into effect – on May 1, specifically.

This megaforum in Buenos Aires sought, for its part, to promote commercial relations between the European Union and Argentina, which have maintained a bilateral treaty since the nineties and which the Argentines seek to modernize.

The trips of presidents, ministers and businessmen, as well as the holding of cultural, commercial and investment summits that generate agreements and profits, are vital to the success or failure of their respective representatives in foreign countries.

One of the sources consulted about the reasons for the suspension stated that they were told that There are meetings of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on June 2, 3 and 4 in Parisand which are practically the same dates as those of the Investment Forum. And that is why they could not participate.

Since Argentina presented the Initial Memorandum of Accession to the OECD, in November 2025, the process has become a priority. But three ministers were invited to the EU Forum at the Libertad Palace —including the chancellor Pablo Quirno—, who would have decided to travel to Paris for the OECD meetings. Clarion He consulted the Foreign Ministry offices but still did not receive a response.

But European sources ironically stated about the ministers’ trip to the OECD that they are surprised, as the “Argentine phrase” says, that “they cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.” And they also joked about the privileged relations of President Milei and his government with Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. “We have to see if there isn’t another trip to the United States for June 1,” the ambassador of a central country observed sarcastically.

The Secretary General of the OECD, the Australian Mathias Cormann, is preparing a formal visit to Argentina, a country that accelerated its process of joining the organization as soon as Milei took office. It would be in September.

The initial invitation to the Forum stated that it was “organized by the European Union —led by Ambassador Erik Høeg— with the support of the EU Chambers of Commerce in Argentina. It was going to bring together senior figures from the government, the business sector and financial institutions of Argentina and the European Union.

The plan was for the meeting to offer concrete investment opportunities within the framework of the EU-Mercosur Agreement.

Diplomatic sources from the Foreign Ministry avoided answering the reasons for the suspension and chose to blame the Argentine Agency for Investment and International Trade (AAICI), led by Diego Sucalesca, who responds directly to the Secretary General of the Presidency, Karina Milei, sister of the President of the Nation. The AAICI is, in this case, the one that manages the important budgets for this type of business forums and the one that organizes its own trips abroad.

In turn, the Foreign Ministry and its diplomats completely lost strength in these matters when it came to deciding and advising, compared to their predecessors.

They have no influence whatsoever on the Agency run by Karina Milei and Sucalesca. Some officials are not formally appointed to the positions in which they serve—there is no vice chancellor, for example—and they are also not allowed to intervene in matters in which they previously participated. Such is the case of the current Secretary of International Economic Relations of the Foreign Ministry, Fernando Brun, who should be in charge of trade relations with the United States, Europe and other countries, and is not. Nor is he seen representing the country’s authority before foreign embassies, as used to happen.

It is in this context that other sources confided to this newspaper that the Agency had nothing to do with the decision and that, in fact, the cancellation note – under the nickname of “postponement” – It came from Quirno’s team and not from Sucalesca. The cancellation under the nickname “postponement” came from Quirno’s team and not from Sucalesca.

Even so, as they confided, both Brun and the new ambassador to Brussels, the former PRO deputy and now member of La Libertad Avanza, Fernando Iglesias, know well that There is a lot of annoyance and confusion among the 27 countries of the EU with Argentinaalthough everyone continues to push investments in the country and support changes and reforms in the economy.