The European Union's policy towards Mercosur

Responsive not strategic

Arantza Gomez Arana

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780719096945
• eBook ISBN: 9781526108418
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: European Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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.

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Introduction: the study of European Union relations with Mercosur

Introduction

This monograph seeks to examine the motivations that determine the European Union's (EU) policy towards the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), which is the most important relationship that the EU has with another regional economic integration organization. In order to investigate these motivations (or lack thereof), this volume will examine 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. This will make it possible to show the degree of ‘involvement’/‘engagement’ reflected in the EU's policy towards Mercosur, which is the dependent variable in this study. The analysis offered here examines the development of EU policy towards Mercosur in relation to three key stages: non-institutionalized relations (1986–1990), official relations (1991–1995), and the negotiations for an association agreement (1996–2004 and 2010–present). The degree of engagement will be measured as low, medium or high. The outcome of the measure is created by analysing two factors: the level of ‘ambition’ and the level of ‘commitment’.

‘Ambition’ reflects how far the EU is trying to shift from the status quo. In order to assess the level of ambition at the different stages, it is necessary to contrast:

• EU policy pronouncements
• negotiating mandates
• plans for the future of the relationship
• promises to Mercosur

with the status quo. Once the ‘ambition’ has been measured, it will be possible to analyse ‘commitment’.

‘Commitment’ reflects how hard the EU is willing to try in order to realize its objectives, and how much it is willing to pay in order to achieve these objectives. In order to assess the level of commitment it is necessary to pay attention to different indicators:

• the frequency of meetings and the importance of those meetings held by the EU: official level, ministerial level, heads of state level,
• the amount of aid or funding provided by the EU towards the different aspects that compound the relationship is worthy of consideration,
• the willingness to compromise during the negotiations.

To complement this analysis, this book compares the different arguments in the existing literature on EU policy towards Mercosur in relation to the three key stages, in order to examine their explanatory capacity over time.

The importance of this analysis is based on the fact that EU–Mercosur relations are the first of the new phenomenon of inter-regionalism. More­over, they included the first negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between two regions. As such, the EU–Mercosur relationship has a prominent place in the literature on the EU as a global actor.

This monograph argues that the dominant explanations for this relationship in the literature – counterbalancing 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 – all fail to explain the trajectory of EU policy adequately. In particular, these accounts tend to infer the EU's motives from its activity. Drawing extensively on primary documents, this book argues that the major developments in EU–Mercosur relations – the 1992 Inter-institutional Agreement and the 1995 Europe–Mercosur Inter-regional Framework for Cooperation Agreement (EMIFCA) – were initiated by Mercosur. Moreover, an FTA was included in the latter agreement whereby negotiations finally started in 1999 at the insistence of Mercosur. This suggests that rather than the EU pursuing a cohesive strategy, as implied by most of the existing literature, the EU was largely responsive. This analysis echoes the work of Jorg Monar (1997) which suggests that third parties were the ones demanding upgrading and policy developments from the EU.

How the EU responded to Mercosur's overtures, however, has been influenced by some of the factors highlighted in the literature, most notably the Europeanization of Portuguese and, particularly, Spanish foreign policies. This corresponds with the general debate on EU external relations, based on the special links upheld by EU members with their former colonies, as is the case of Iberian and Latin American members (for example, on this debate see Ravenhill 2002 and Marsh and Mackenstein 2005). Furthermore, the Commission's role as external federator has also influenced EU policy towards Mercosur, although to a lesser extent. Overall, however, these supposedly causal factors have provided only a very weak impetus for EU policy, which in large part explains why the relationship is much less developed than the EU's relations with other parts of the world.

As mentioned above, according to the literature, the Europeanization of Spanish and Portuguese policy, and the role of the Commission as external federator are not the only possible influences on the EU's actions towards Mercosur. There are four other main possible drivers put forward. First, the EU's actions could be seen as strategic behaviour to oppose or counterbalance the US in Latin America. A second influence is the development of a global agenda by the EU, with Mercosur being part of that global strategy. A third is the increase in socio-cultural values shared by the EU and Mercosur after the democratization process in South America. And finally, the growing economic interdependence of a globalized world which would lay the basis for an increase in trade between the EU and Mercosur could be a motive for the EU's policy towards Mercosur. In this study, each of these factors are considered at each of the three stages of EU policy development in order to understand to what extent they could offer a satisfactory explanation for the development of EU–Mercosur policy.

Beyond providing a distinctive and empirically rich account of the EU's relationship with Mercosur, this monograph contributes to the literature on the EU as a global player, particularly the extent to which it is a strategic actor, and to the literature on the Europeanization of national foreign policies of member states from a bottom-up perspective, particularly in reference to the case of Spain and Portugal. The significance of this work is enhanced because it speaks to this wider literature by offering a reinterpretation of the EU's relations with Mercosur, the central point of this volume.

In order to better understand the Europeanization process, it is necessary to explain a concept that is clearly linked to it – path dependence. It starts with an historical event that creates a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. The historical event creates a path that will be followed and this creates a dependency on the path because there is not a second ‘lane’ to follow or a Plan B. Pierson (2000: 2) explains that ‘path dependence refers to the causal relevance of preceding stages in a temporal sequence’. Pierson also draws on Sewell's definition of path dependence which suggests that path dependence means ‘that what happened at an earlier point in time will affect the possible outcomes of a sequence of events occurring at a later point in time’ (Sewell 1996: 262–263).

In the case of Europeanization, this is certainly not a new concept; it has been used in many studies. However, very few scholars have tried to provide an exact definition of Europeanization (Featherstone and Radaelli 2003). Wong (2008) argues that the notion of there being a Europeanization of foreign policy was initiated by Ben Tonra (2001). Therefore, the definition of Europeanization will echo the definition used in the area of foreign policy. Tonra's defines Europeanization as ‘A transformation in the way in which national foreign policies are constructed, in the ways in which professional roles are defined and pursued and in the consequent internationalisation of norms and expectations arising from a complex system of collective European policy making’ (Tonra 2001: 229; cited in Wong 2008: 323.

A key question in the study of European foreign policy relates to the concept of ‘movement’. The concept of Europeanization itself is about movement, particularly when speaking of ‘transformation’. When examining the issue of ‘transformation’, it is important to ask what is actually being transformed. In other words, ‘what is changing and what are the mechanisms and direction of change (top-down from the EU to the member states, bottom-up, or socialization?)’ (Wong 2008: 323). As regards ‘what is changing’, the discussion is about the changing of either procedures or the substance of the foreign policies of individual member states (Wong 2008). In line with the discussion above, this relates to the idea of a member state trying to influence EU foreign policy in a particular area and, as a result, the EU uploads the policy.

The rest of this book is divided as follows. The next chapter provides the analytical framework. It presents an extensive review of the existing literature on EU policy towards Mercosur. Also, it examines the links between that literature and the arguments related to the EU as a global actor. Furthermore, this chapter will also outline the methodological approach for this monograph. The discussion in Chapter 3 will focus on outlining the EU's policy towards Mercosur by examining how the EU internal mechanisms operate in this area. In doing so, the legal basis for EU–Mercosur agreements and the consequent policy and decision-making rules will be outlined. Chapters 4 to 7 correspond with each of the three key stages in the development of EU policy towards Mercosur: the non-institutionalized relations (1986–1990) will be discussed in Chapter 4, the official relations (1991–1995) will be analysed in Chapter 5, and finally, the negotiations of the association agreement (1996–2004) will be examined in Chapters 6 and 7 (2010–present). Chapter 8 will sum up the conclusions of this work.

The remainder of this chapter is divided into sections which aim to contextualize broadly the different aspects of this study and to have a clear overview of it. In the next section the discussion focuses on the concept of the EU as a global actor. This will enable us to assess whether or not the EU behaves as a global actor towards Mercosur. The importance of understanding this concept for the monograph is vital since this volume assesses not only whether the EU has a strategy towards Mercosur but also how behaving strategically relates to whether the EU is a global actor or not. This will contribute to the discussion in and around one of the most keenly contested topics in EU foreign policy – EU global ‘actorness’. After analysing this issue, the discussion will turn to focus on the development of the criteria which help us to identify what it means to be a strategic actor. This will provide the necessary framework to enable us to determine whether or not the EU can be referred to as a strategic actor. In the conclusion, these discussions will be revised and linked to the findings of the book. After that a section is dedicated to the historical background; a short historical overview of reg...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Boxes, figures and tables
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction: the study of European Union relations with Mercosur
• 2 Analytical framework: relations between the European Union and Mercosur
• 3 European Union policy-making towards Mercosur
• 4 Non-institutionalized relations between the EU and Mercosur
• 5 The most productive years of EU–Mercosur relations
• 6 The first attempt to negotiate the association agreement
• 7 The second attempt to negotiate the association agreement
• 8 Lessons to be learned from the EU policy towards Mercosur
• References
• Index