Regional Integration

Nations within South America have accepted regional integration as a way of improving democracy and promoting economic development. The EU has consistently been a representation for countries to cooperate with one another in order to achieve common interests by three integration processes ongoing in the region; 'Mercosur (the “Southern Common Market”), the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), and the Central American Integration System (SICA) (Eurunion 2006)'. The EU works alongside the South American region in order to achieve goals and principles through various political and diplomatic means.

1) Association Agreements including free trade areas – currently operational with Mexico and Chile, association agreements involve a variety of political, economic and cooperation schemes which include common trade and investment liberalisation. Negotiations are already ongoing for an Association Agreement with Mercosur.

2) Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreements – Free trade areas are not included in Cooperation Agreements, but instead encourage political and economic stability of partner countries, promote sustainable development, and expand regional integration methods. “Cooperation agreements were concluded in December 2003 with the Andean Community (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela) and Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) (Eurunion 2006)”.

3) ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) –The EU has a successful developing aid program and favoured trade access to Europe’s market through its ACP programme. With this in mind the EU is conferring Economic Partnership Agreements (ECPs) in order to promote regional integration within the ACP and promote free trade which would result in an increase in ACP’s competitiveness and increase involvement in global economy.