Political and economic integration

2019 will be the year of the twentieth anniversary of the EU-LAC bi-regional Strategic Partnership. But will it also be the year of the desired turning point for EU-LAC relations? Will Europe be able to re-launch political and economic dialogue with LAC countries, especially taking into account that its engagement combines different levels of relations: regional, through the EU-LAC Strategic Partnership, sub-regional, with different regional organizations such as Mercosur or the Pacific Alliance, and bilateral, with individual countries? And finally, will Europe and Latin American countries be able to navigate through today’s choppy international waters, with rising tides of populism and protectionism mounting on both shores of the Atlantic? These issues are at the core of this ISPI report. EU-LAC relations are a litmus test for Brussels to show that it still has the potential to scale up its influence in the region, notwithstanding the current divisions and lack of vision of the EU itself. Building upon a less ambitious but more pragmatic agenda, Europe may indeed re-launch a win-win partnership.

This paper deals with relation between El Salvador and European Union. It contains a review of existing cooperation agreements between the regions. It's main goal was to identify the TOP 10 imported and exported products. It contains an analysis of a possible expansion of the market between them and an identification of products where there is commercial potential.

The European Union-Brazil Strategic Partnership highlights collaboration in the fight against climate change. The aim of this paper is to analyse whether there has been coordination or, at least, a convergence of positions of the EU and Brazil in the last four United Nations Climate Change Conferences (2011-2014). To this aim, there is a review of academic and official sources and an empirical analysis of the media diplomacy messages of both actors at the four conferences which are object of study.

The EU-CELAC Summit in June 2015 brought together 61 EU and Latin American and Caribbean leaders, including more than 40 Heads of State or Government. This publication gives essential information on the event and presents the most important documents adopted during the summit. It also provides the forewords by Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission and Rafael Correa Delgado, President pro tempore of CELAC.

This article presents an analysis of the different approaches proposed by authors who have done research on Latin American integration and regionalism, and suggests that there are three competing initiatives of integration and regionalism in the third wave of Latin American integration: Post-Liberal Regionalism contained within UNASUR and ALBA, Open Regionalism Reloaded in the region through the Pacific Alliance, and Multilateralism or Diplomatic Regionalism with a Latin American flavor envisaged in the recently created CELAC. The study concludes that these new developments of a regionalism à la carte are a product of dislocation of the economic agenda of regionalism towards a set of diverse issues. Hence it demands a rethinking of the theorization of Latin American Regionalism.

The article shows that over the past decade and a half there have been significant changes in the international situation in Latin America, which affected all the main areas of external relations in the region. The interaction between the Latin American countries moved forward, which was reflected in the formation and development of new structures, such as UNASUR, ALBA, SELAC, and the Pacific Alliance. China has dramatically expanded its presence in the region, which was manifested in the growth of trade and Chinese investment, and the transition from the level of bilateral cooperation to multilateral format. The cooperation between Latin America and Russia has risen on a higher level, which was manifested in the expansion of trade and economic ties and collaboration of certain Latin American integration groupings with the EAEC. The new moments characterize relations with the US, which is clearly evident in US-Cuban relations. Latin American countries have stepped up dialogue with the European Union. All these factors combine to expand the range of external relations of Latin American and Caribbean countries and prove the changing role of Latin America in the system of global relations.

With the accession of ten new countries on May 1, 2004, the European Union completed its largest ever extension. With the current 25 members, the EU is consolidated as one of the biggest markets in the world and, as is logical, this new reality entails political and economic upheavals. The author shows how this process has aroused an incipient fear among EU partners in Latin America due to this greater interest shown in the Eastern European countries. Countries whose economy is based on agriculture and livestock, such as Argentina, fear that the new agrarian markets (particularly Poland) may affect their trade dealings with the EU. Nevertheless, for the moment, events have allayed these fears. Be that as it may, the author feels that it is imperative that the traditional relations between European and Latin America continue to be strengthened, based on a certain scale of shared values, as the only way to make progress in the strategic cooperation of the two partners, and thus bring greater stability and democracy to an increasingly more globalised world.