Mario Torres Jarrín, EIIS Director & Paulina Astrosa Suarez, Jean Monnet Chair at Universidad de Concepción

---

			Jean Monnet Projects «Relations between the European Union and Latin America: Future scenarios in a changing world” Research period : 2018-2020
Erasmus+

The project «»Relations between the European Union and Latin America: Future scenarios in a changing world” has two principal aims:

1. Cross-fertilization:

– Consolidate the creation of a research team made up of academics from Europe (Germany, Sweden and Spain) and Latin America (Chile and Ecuador); and

– Boost the existing knowledge and enhance the dynamics between academics in Europe and Latin America, and especially between the Jean Monnet Chair of the professor Paulina Astroza in Concepción, Chile and the EU-LAC Chair of the Dr. Mario Torres in the European Institute of International Studies, in Stockholm, Sweden.

2. Knowledge dissemination with non-academic actors:

– Share and disseminate this project’s research results (information and knowledge) to a broad academic and non-academic audience, including but not limited to students, alumni, professors, civil servants, private sector and civil society.

This will be done through:

• Two workshops (in Chile and in Sweden) in which the research team will participate to exchange, discuss and debate their research and delineate the conclusions that will be reflected in the seminars and final publication;
• Two international conferences to be held in Chile and in Sweden in which the ideas and conclusions of the team’s research will be presented to the general public. The seminars will be designed to discuss, analyse collaboratively with the attendees, the dimensions of the relations between the European Union and Latin America. The research will incorporate these debates into their final conclusions.
• Periodic meetings via videoconference between team members, to organize the activities and to refine and coordinate their research projects.
• Final publication in English / Spanish of the principal results of the research and discussion in the activities developed in the various instances of the execution of the project.

The Project’s academics are professors from Latin America and Europe who are specialists and have experience in European studies. This project will allow them to collaborate, for the first time, in a joint research project that will analyse, from a multidisciplinary perspective, future scenarios of the relations between the European Union and the Latin American subcontinent

Relevance of the proposal to the specific objectives of the Action

We are presently witnessing the changes that the international system has been experiencing for some time but that have been intensified by phenomena such as the Brexit, the arrival to power of Donald Trump and its policy of retreat into the interior or the reinforcement of the internal power of Xi Jinping in China or Wladimir Putin in Russia. The uncertainty caused by these changes is also accompanied by environmental uncertainty (climate change), in the movement of people (consequences of the refugee and immigrant crisis), in the field of Economics and the debate on national sovereignties and their transfer to supranational instances. Uncertainty becomes a key concept and questions about the future of the present system are not slow to emerge. Within this dynamic, it is important to observe carefully how the relations between the European Union and Latin America are developing. Although these relationships have intensified over the years, it is true that they have not developed homogeneously due to the Latin American reality and the divergent interests of relevant actors. Still, the particular national dynamics that they have experienced -responding to different contexts, realities and interests- could also be affected by the changes in the international system and uncertainty over the future.

The objective of this project is to share the collaborative, multidisciplinary and specialist research developed on both continents on the possible future scenarios for EU – Latin America relations in the medium term. These reflections will be developed through the formation of a research team formed by European and Latin American academics who have never worked together and who could be the start of an interesting Euro-Latin American network of future projection.

 The dimensions to work for the academics in the Project will be:

– Dr. Paulina Astroza (Chile): She will contribute to a study of sub-state relations between sub-national Latin American and European units – what is known as sub-state diplomacy or paradiplomacy – and European influence on the Latin American experience.

– Dr. Beatriz Larraín (Chile): She will study in comparative form some of the phenomena that occur in the Courts of Justice of the European Union (for example, judicialization, political role of judges, dialogues with supranational and community courts) with those occurring in Latin America, particularly in the case of Chile.

– Dr. Jeanne Simon (Chile): She will contribute with a study on the influence of the European Union models of territorial development on local and regional governments in Chile, identifying the main achievements and challenges faced in their adaptation.

– Dr. Marcela Jaime (Chile): Working from an economic perspective, she will conduct research on environment and development issues in Latin America, and which lessons we can learn from the European experience. She will also contribute with a study on the shadow costs on environmental regulation in the EU-15 agriculture.

– Dr. Mauricio Rondanelli (Chile): He will be in charge of developing research related to climate change and biodiversity in aspects focused on diminution of native species, ecosystemic fragility and development of mitigation policies and adaptation to the current climate, according to the current environmental regulations agreed in Paris 2016. The aim will be to establish the patterns of convergence between the planning of the EU and Latin America for the environmental issue.

– Dr. Beatriz Hernández (Chile): She will contribute with a study on the influence of the European Union Foreign Policy on regional South South cooperation. The objective of this research is to analyze how public policies, which are based on learning processes, best practice experiences and knowledge sharing, have been adapted from Europe to Latin American countries.

– Dr. © Michel Levi (Ecuador): He will study the functional relations between the European Union and current South American regionalism process. The objective of his research is to define the influence of the European Union institutional and normative framework into the current South American regionalism and its future evolution.

– Dr. Gian Luca Gardini (Germany): He will contribute to the project with a number of studies on the changing international environment for cooperation between Europe and Latin America, namely the impact of new national administrations on regional integration, and proposals for new forms of biregional political dialogue.

– Dr. Mario Torres (Sweden): He will contribute with a study on the changes in EU-LAC diplomatic relations after Lisbon Treaty, which included the expanded the role of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the creation of the European External Action Service.

– Dr. Millán Requena (Spain): He wiil study on the processes and content of the emerging international protection system on the tretament of asylum seekers and internally displaced persons, following the United Nations commitment for the adoption of a Global asylum compact as well as its implementation in comparative perspective between EU and Latin america contries, with special focus on the EU’s role.

– Dr. Antonio Estella (Spain): He will work on the triangular relationship between the US, Latin America and the European Union.