Is interregionalism in trouble? the case of the relations between the European Union and the MERCOSUR

Abstract

The European Union and the MERCOSUR are promising partners, as shows the increasing exchange in the trade of goods and services, their volume of the first order of investments, the significant aid for cooperation to the development that provides the EU to the South Cone Countries and the productive dialogue political mutual of the last years. In spite of this context so favourable, since 1999 the EU and the MERCOSUR are negotiating with little success the implementation of the Interregional Framework Cooperation Agreement, signed in Madrid in 1995, due to enormous difficulties surfaced during the sixteen negotiations rounds, particularly - but not exclusively- for the deep differences in agricultural matter, up to the end of being able to state that the establishment of the future association finds at present in a cul-de-sac. The next birregional EU-LAC Summit, which will be taken place in Madrid in May 2010, offers a unique occasion to go out from this impasse making use of the circumstance that it will be chaired by Spain, the main defender of the closer relationships among both organizations of integration