The path towards a more integrated region continues to be a long, difficult one

Over a two-day period, the CIDOB Foundation brought together a group of leading analysts from Latin America and the European Union to analyse South American integration from a combined political and economic perspective. The main objectives of the seminar were to debate the current situation and the resulting prospects, as well as the rationality and objectives of the integration process from the point of view of the development agenda, democratic governance, social cohesion and international insertion in the sub-region, paying particular attention to the European Union’s role as an important actor and external partner for this integration process.

Coordinated by the lecturers Manuel Cienfuegos, from the Latin America Relations Observatory (ORLA) at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, and José Antonio Sanahuja, from the Complutense Institute for International Studies (ICEI), at the Complutense University of Madrid, the seminar also featured the participation of Félix Peña, Lecturer at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF), Argentina, Ana Sojo, Researcher in the ECLAC Social Development Division in Santiago, Chile and Klaus Bodemer, President of the European Council of Social Research on Latin America (CEISAL).

The seminar highlighted the importance of integration in terms of the development agenda, external influence and the democratic governance of MERCOSUR, the Andean Community and the still-incipient project of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur). The analysis also covered the difficulties and periods of crisis that South American countries have undergone, and are continuing to undergo, in terms of their projects and aspirations towards a more integrated region.