The European Union's policy towards Mercosur:: Responsive not strategic

This monograph seeks to examine the motivations for the European Union’s (EU) policy towards the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), the EU’s most important relationship with another regional economic integration organisation. This monograph argues that the dominant explanations in the literature -- balancing the US, global aspirations, being an external federator, long-standing economic and cultural ties, economic interdependence, and the Europeanization of Spanish and Portuguese national foreign policies – fail to adequately explain the EU’s policy. In particular, these accounts tend to infer the EU’s motives from its activity. Drawing extensive primary documents, this monograph argues that the major developments in the relationship -- the 1992 Inter-institutional Agreement and the 1995 Europe Mercosur Inter-regional Framework Cooperation Agreement – were initiated by Mercosur and supported mainly by Spain. This means that rather than the EU pursuing a strategy, as implied by most of the existing literature, the EU was largely responsive. This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This book provides a distinctive and empirically rich account of the European Union's relationship with the Common Market of the South (Mercosur). It seeks to examine the motivations that determine the EU's policy towards Mercosur; the most important relationship the EU has with another regional economic integration organization. In order to investigate these motivations (or lack thereof), this study examines the contribution of the main policy- and decision-makers, the European Commission and the Council of Ministers, as well as the different contributions of the two institutions. It analyses the development of EU policy towards Mercosur in relation to three key stages. Arana argues that the dominant explanations in the literature fail to adequately explain the EU's policy, in particular, these accounts tend to infer the EU's motives from its activity. Rather than the EU pursuing a strategy, as implied by most of the existing literature, the EU was largely responsive, which explains why the relationship is much less developed than the EU's relations with other parts of the world. This book provides a distinctive and empirically rich account of the European Union?s relationship with the Common Market of the South (Mercosur). It seeks to examine the motivations that determine the EU?s policy towards Mercosur; the most important relationship the EU has with another regional economic integration organization. Drawing on extensive primary documents, the book argues that the major developments in the relationship were initiated by Mercosur and supported mainly by Spain. Rather than the EU pursuing a strategy, as implied by most of the existing literature, the EU was largely responsive, which explains why the relationship is much less developed than the EU?s relations with other parts of the world. Front matter Dedication Contents List of boxes, figures and tables Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: the study of European Union relations with Mercosur Analytical framework: relations between the European Union and Mercosur European Union policy-making towards Mercosur Non-institutionalized relations between the EU and Mercosur The most productive years of EU–Mercosur relations The first attempt to negotiate the association agreement The second attempt to negotiate the association agreement Lessons to be learned from the EU policy towards Mercosur References Index