The European Union As A Region-Building Actor In Latin-America

The main objective of this document is to establish if the UE can be considered as an actor of the Latin-American regional integration. The method of the current research is qualitative. The different aspects of the interregional European strategy for regional integration towards Latin America (E.I.S.R.I. – L.A.) are analyzed as follows. First, the discourse that places regional integration as one of the priorities of the given strategy is studied. Second, the economic actions responsible of materializing that priority are checked. Third, the political actions of the E.I.S.R.I. – L.A. are introduced. The results of the analysis make it evident that although EU appears to be an actor of the Latin-American regional integration, its influence seems to be restricted. Nevertheless, this affirmation should be relativized because this lack of influence can be due to an absence of mechanisms of measurement of results in terms of regional integration.