Publication Name
Working Paper
Volume, number, page
6/2007
Year of Publication
2007
Organization Name
Instituto Barcelona de Estudios Internacionales
Acronym
IBEI
Publisher
Fundació CIDOB
City
Barcelona
Country of Publication
Spain
Full Date
February 2007
ISBN or ISSN
1886-2802
Category
Academic articles
Theme
BIREGIONAL RELATIONS UE - LAC
Keyword(s)
European Union
South America
Regional Integration
Regionalism
Mercosur
Andean Community
Abstract
The experience of the European Union is the most significant and far-reaching
among all attempts at regional integration. It is, therefore, the most likely to provide some
lessons for those world regions that are just beginning this complex process. In turn, the
Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) and the Andean Community (CAN) are among
the regional integration projects that have reached the greatest level of formal accomplishment
after the EU. MERCOSUR is a customs union that aspires to become a common market,
while avowing the commitment to advance towards political integration. For its part,
CAN is a customs union that has already developed supranational institutions such as a
Commission, a Parliament and a Court of Justice. In both cases, however, words have progressively
tended to wander far from deeds. One reason underlying this phenomenon may
be a misunderstanding of the European experience with integration. In this article, we discuss
the theories that have been developed to account for integration in Europe and may
prove useful to understand integration elsewhere and put forward a set of lessons that could
be drawn from the European experience. Subsequently, we introduce a description of the
experience of integration in South America and reflect (critically) on how the theories and
lessons drawn from the EU could be applied to this region -and beyond.
among all attempts at regional integration. It is, therefore, the most likely to provide some
lessons for those world regions that are just beginning this complex process. In turn, the
Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) and the Andean Community (CAN) are among
the regional integration projects that have reached the greatest level of formal accomplishment
after the EU. MERCOSUR is a customs union that aspires to become a common market,
while avowing the commitment to advance towards political integration. For its part,
CAN is a customs union that has already developed supranational institutions such as a
Commission, a Parliament and a Court of Justice. In both cases, however, words have progressively
tended to wander far from deeds. One reason underlying this phenomenon may
be a misunderstanding of the European experience with integration. In this article, we discuss
the theories that have been developed to account for integration in Europe and may
prove useful to understand integration elsewhere and put forward a set of lessons that could
be drawn from the European experience. Subsequently, we introduce a description of the
experience of integration in South America and reflect (critically) on how the theories and
lessons drawn from the EU could be applied to this region -and beyond.