Social Sciences article by Elena Lazarou, Head of the Center for International Relations at FGV and Assistant Professor at FGV’s School of Social Sciences (CPDOC).
http://ri.fgv.br/en
Highway to hell? European Union‘s Eastern Policy from a Civilian power persp...Adam Mickiewicz University
Jarosław Jańczak, Michael Meimeth, 2015, Highway to hell? – European Union’s Eastern Policy from a civilizing power perspective, “Centre international de formation européenne CIFE Policy Paper”, No. 7, pp. 10.
In 2009, the Republic of Moldova created an alternative to the communist
leadership. In 2013, the Alliance for European Integration was replaced by the Alliance for Pro-European Governance, which secured two issues: the signing of the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union, and
the interests of local oligarchs. After the parliamentary elections in 2014, as an alternative to the increasingly powerful Igor Dodon’s Party of Socialists, another coalition,
the Political Alliance for European Moldova was created and ‘sealed’ by embezzling
$ 1 billion from Moldovan banks (12.5% of GDP). The coalition formed in January
2015, was replaced by the re-launched Alliance for European Integration, and then by
another coalition without a definite name in January 2016. This extremely expanded
political activity is a backdrop for the façade of democracy and the subsequent parliamentary elections scheduled for 2018. The pro-European coalitions in the Republic of
Moldova discredited themselves in front of the society as strongly as their predecessors (the communists), causing a state of general disintegration.
Polish Printed Media Coverage and Evaluation of the Polish Presidency in the ...Agnieszka Stępińska
A. Stępińska, B. Secler (2014), Polish Printed Media Coverage and Evaluation of the Polish Presidency in the EU Council Presidency, (in:) A. Stępińska (ed.) Media and Communication in Europe,Berlin: Logos Verlag, pp. 211–226.
The paper considers the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) as a byproduct of the EU’s external governance. It identifies the vital role of external borders
in the integration processes of the European Union (EU). The paper analyzes the border component of the ENP’s key documents and respective communications covering
the period from 2003 to 2017. The ENP texts recognize external borders as zones of
contact and dynamic collaboration. The documents reveal the imperialistic incentives
of the EU and identify the management of external borders as a matter of joint responsibilities among the Union and partners
Highway to hell? European Union‘s Eastern Policy from a Civilian power persp...Adam Mickiewicz University
Jarosław Jańczak, Michael Meimeth, 2015, Highway to hell? – European Union’s Eastern Policy from a civilizing power perspective, “Centre international de formation européenne CIFE Policy Paper”, No. 7, pp. 10.
In 2009, the Republic of Moldova created an alternative to the communist
leadership. In 2013, the Alliance for European Integration was replaced by the Alliance for Pro-European Governance, which secured two issues: the signing of the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union, and
the interests of local oligarchs. After the parliamentary elections in 2014, as an alternative to the increasingly powerful Igor Dodon’s Party of Socialists, another coalition,
the Political Alliance for European Moldova was created and ‘sealed’ by embezzling
$ 1 billion from Moldovan banks (12.5% of GDP). The coalition formed in January
2015, was replaced by the re-launched Alliance for European Integration, and then by
another coalition without a definite name in January 2016. This extremely expanded
political activity is a backdrop for the façade of democracy and the subsequent parliamentary elections scheduled for 2018. The pro-European coalitions in the Republic of
Moldova discredited themselves in front of the society as strongly as their predecessors (the communists), causing a state of general disintegration.
Polish Printed Media Coverage and Evaluation of the Polish Presidency in the ...Agnieszka Stępińska
A. Stępińska, B. Secler (2014), Polish Printed Media Coverage and Evaluation of the Polish Presidency in the EU Council Presidency, (in:) A. Stępińska (ed.) Media and Communication in Europe,Berlin: Logos Verlag, pp. 211–226.
The paper considers the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) as a byproduct of the EU’s external governance. It identifies the vital role of external borders
in the integration processes of the European Union (EU). The paper analyzes the border component of the ENP’s key documents and respective communications covering
the period from 2003 to 2017. The ENP texts recognize external borders as zones of
contact and dynamic collaboration. The documents reveal the imperialistic incentives
of the EU and identify the management of external borders as a matter of joint responsibilities among the Union and partners
The Role of Civil Society in EU Migration Policy2One
Civil society provides a crucial link between governments and the communities they represent. Thus far, civil society organisations have had a limited role in European policy debates.
Hey! Check cool APA format lite review example, more examples you will get here https://www.litreview.net/our-literature-review-writing-service/write-your-apa-literature-review-with-us/
This paper analyses the spatial distribution of economic activity in the European Union at NUTS2 level over the 2001-2010 period. The aim of the study is twofold: (i) to provide descriptive evidence of the agglomeration distribution in Europe and its evolution over time across countries; (ii) to identify the nature of agglomeration and the factors that determine its level, with particular attention paid to the socio-ecological transformation occurring in Europe.
The study concludes that: a) the changes in agglomeration are sensitive to demographic transformations taking place; b) the ecological transformation has a mixed effect, depending on each country; c) significant differences are observed between new and old Member States; the crisis has had a significant influence on agglomeration but only in Western Europe.
Authored by: Izabela Styczynska and Constantin Zaman
Non governmental organizations have been active in Moldova since 1989, but a civil society started its today’s formation as a result of radical reforms in economic and political areas only after the country became independent in 1991. Since that time the establishment of a transitional civil society in Moldova is under way. However, starting from 2001, when the Communist Party won the general elections, development of the nongovernmental sector has become slower. Although several positive patterns evident at the end of the nineties indicate progress in the development of Moldovan non-governmental sector, there is a number of sensitive issues (e.g., freedom of media, human rights protection) in relation to which certain regress has been observed especially in the last two years. Media market in Moldova is far from being free, and protection of human rights remains to be a problem (in all respects, situation of non-governmental sector in Transnistria is much worse than in Moldova). Finally, it needs to be emphasized that critical socio-economic situation seems to be the main threat to democracy and the rule of law in the country. This is because further significant economic decline can provide fertile ground for non-democratic political forces and extremists. Economic collapse could be a real threat to the achievements in the area of democratization and civil society development. Thus, only results of a successful economic reform process may reverse undesirable patterns and change socio-economic situation in Moldova, increase income of population, decrease poverty, guarantee stability and irreversibility of Moldovan achievements in democratization and development of civil society.
Authored by: Jacek Cukrowski, Radzislawa Gortat, Piotr Kazmierkiewicz
Published in 2003
With the availability of powerful but relatively low-level plotting libraries like d3.js, plot.ly, and matplotlib, it is easier than it has ever been to create beautiful visualizations. However, these plotting libraries must be very general and thus quite complicated to accommodate arbitrarily complex plotting and visualization tasks.In this talk, I describe the plotting system used by yt, an analysis and visualization platform for volumetric data written in python. The yt plotting system wraps matplotlib, creating a domain-specific API for creating publication quality plots that matches users' intuition for how they would like to explore and visualize their data. I will provide tips for designing and testing domain-specific plotting APIs so that the resulting plots are beautiful by default, but still modifiable with the full power of the underlying plotting library.
Мастер-класс руководителя службы контент-маркетинга Дарьи Харитоновой на InternetExpo-2016. Из него вы узнаете о 5 причинах внедрения контент-маркетинга; как сделать из бренда СМИ; как подобрать каналы дистрибуции исходя из аудитории и ее предпочтений; как контент увеличивает LTV
This panel organised by Dr Calzada and chaired by Dr Herrschel, has been accepted to be into the programme of UACES (The Academic Association for Contemporary European Studies) Conference in Bilbao.
European regional context is being transformed by the increasingly demand of the sub-national territorial units to reach more devolution and even independence. Under the same devolution regional trend though, many manifestations can be identified that remark their new relationship with their referential nation-states. This panel looks at the concept such as 'devolution', 'independence' and 'self determination' in order to find theoretical and policy-informed evidences in the European arena. Moreover, it looks into ways in which the phenomenon could be explained from different perspective such as, city-regionalism, comparative politics, urban and spatial planning, city diplomacy and social innovation, among others.
The EU has suffered a series of crises over the past few years, leading many experts to continually predict the downfall of Europe. The Eurozone crisis uncovered a number of economic issues that need to be dealt with in order to improve the overall competitiveness of the EU economy.
There are two reasons that explain why the EU was particularly vulnerable to the global financial crisis:
1. The single market united countries that had very different economic structures, as well as huge disparities in terms of their development;
2. Due to the political reasons the Economic and Monetary Union combined a supranational monetary policy with the almost individual economic policies of all the EU member states. The acute phase of crisis (the threat that a number of countries could go bankrupt and leave the Eurozone) was mitigated.
The Role of Civil Society in EU Migration Policy2One
Civil society provides a crucial link between governments and the communities they represent. Thus far, civil society organisations have had a limited role in European policy debates.
Hey! Check cool APA format lite review example, more examples you will get here https://www.litreview.net/our-literature-review-writing-service/write-your-apa-literature-review-with-us/
This paper analyses the spatial distribution of economic activity in the European Union at NUTS2 level over the 2001-2010 period. The aim of the study is twofold: (i) to provide descriptive evidence of the agglomeration distribution in Europe and its evolution over time across countries; (ii) to identify the nature of agglomeration and the factors that determine its level, with particular attention paid to the socio-ecological transformation occurring in Europe.
The study concludes that: a) the changes in agglomeration are sensitive to demographic transformations taking place; b) the ecological transformation has a mixed effect, depending on each country; c) significant differences are observed between new and old Member States; the crisis has had a significant influence on agglomeration but only in Western Europe.
Authored by: Izabela Styczynska and Constantin Zaman
Non governmental organizations have been active in Moldova since 1989, but a civil society started its today’s formation as a result of radical reforms in economic and political areas only after the country became independent in 1991. Since that time the establishment of a transitional civil society in Moldova is under way. However, starting from 2001, when the Communist Party won the general elections, development of the nongovernmental sector has become slower. Although several positive patterns evident at the end of the nineties indicate progress in the development of Moldovan non-governmental sector, there is a number of sensitive issues (e.g., freedom of media, human rights protection) in relation to which certain regress has been observed especially in the last two years. Media market in Moldova is far from being free, and protection of human rights remains to be a problem (in all respects, situation of non-governmental sector in Transnistria is much worse than in Moldova). Finally, it needs to be emphasized that critical socio-economic situation seems to be the main threat to democracy and the rule of law in the country. This is because further significant economic decline can provide fertile ground for non-democratic political forces and extremists. Economic collapse could be a real threat to the achievements in the area of democratization and civil society development. Thus, only results of a successful economic reform process may reverse undesirable patterns and change socio-economic situation in Moldova, increase income of population, decrease poverty, guarantee stability and irreversibility of Moldovan achievements in democratization and development of civil society.
Authored by: Jacek Cukrowski, Radzislawa Gortat, Piotr Kazmierkiewicz
Published in 2003
With the availability of powerful but relatively low-level plotting libraries like d3.js, plot.ly, and matplotlib, it is easier than it has ever been to create beautiful visualizations. However, these plotting libraries must be very general and thus quite complicated to accommodate arbitrarily complex plotting and visualization tasks.In this talk, I describe the plotting system used by yt, an analysis and visualization platform for volumetric data written in python. The yt plotting system wraps matplotlib, creating a domain-specific API for creating publication quality plots that matches users' intuition for how they would like to explore and visualize their data. I will provide tips for designing and testing domain-specific plotting APIs so that the resulting plots are beautiful by default, but still modifiable with the full power of the underlying plotting library.
Мастер-класс руководителя службы контент-маркетинга Дарьи Харитоновой на InternetExpo-2016. Из него вы узнаете о 5 причинах внедрения контент-маркетинга; как сделать из бренда СМИ; как подобрать каналы дистрибуции исходя из аудитории и ее предпочтений; как контент увеличивает LTV
This panel organised by Dr Calzada and chaired by Dr Herrschel, has been accepted to be into the programme of UACES (The Academic Association for Contemporary European Studies) Conference in Bilbao.
European regional context is being transformed by the increasingly demand of the sub-national territorial units to reach more devolution and even independence. Under the same devolution regional trend though, many manifestations can be identified that remark their new relationship with their referential nation-states. This panel looks at the concept such as 'devolution', 'independence' and 'self determination' in order to find theoretical and policy-informed evidences in the European arena. Moreover, it looks into ways in which the phenomenon could be explained from different perspective such as, city-regionalism, comparative politics, urban and spatial planning, city diplomacy and social innovation, among others.
The EU has suffered a series of crises over the past few years, leading many experts to continually predict the downfall of Europe. The Eurozone crisis uncovered a number of economic issues that need to be dealt with in order to improve the overall competitiveness of the EU economy.
There are two reasons that explain why the EU was particularly vulnerable to the global financial crisis:
1. The single market united countries that had very different economic structures, as well as huge disparities in terms of their development;
2. Due to the political reasons the Economic and Monetary Union combined a supranational monetary policy with the almost individual economic policies of all the EU member states. The acute phase of crisis (the threat that a number of countries could go bankrupt and leave the Eurozone) was mitigated.
Response 1 The European Union seems to be one of the few mode.docxwilfredoa1
Response 1:
The European Union seems to be one of the few modern arguments that can be made in favor of liberal IR theory. Following WWII realist principles would have dictated that states compete to fill the power vacuum left by the fall of Germany with each state pursuing the sole goal of European hegemony. Amazingly, this is the opposite of what happened. Perhaps it was the need to band together against the powerful Russian threat during the Cold War, which would conform to realist theory, but for whatever reason the European states chose to cooperate and form international institutions instead. According to our lesson this week the EU began as an economic IO to regulate trade in certain materials, and later customs. This should not be surprising, given what we learned two weeks about the link between economic prosperity and the expansion of democracy, but it is still a unique phenomenon in global politics. Between NATO and the EU, Europe probably hosts more successful supranational organizations than any other region in the world. There are other successful supranational organizations, such as ASEAN and the African Union, but they have had significant troubles and do not enjoy the same level of support from their member nations that the EU does. Some of the common difficulties we have seen facing supranational political organizations are accountability and enforcement. Tallberg described the two solutions to this as enforcement and management. “Enforcement theorists characteristically stress a coercive strategy of monitoring and sanctions, management theorists embrace a problem-solving approach based on capacity building, rule interpretation, and transparency.” (2002, 1) The EU has figured out how to combine these two competing approaches into a political strategy that keeps states in line while not subjugating them or overly imposing on their sovereignty. This is why I find this enforcement and management theory most persuasive in analyzing EU policymaking. The EU’s multi-level governance would not work without the accountability that they obtain through balancing enforcement and management. As I said at the beginning of this post, realism is the theoretical approach least persuasive when explaining EU development and effectiveness. As someone who usually ascribes to the bleak, realist outlook, I find the example set by the EU to be refreshing and hopeful. If ASEAN and the African Union could replicate their success, it would greatly increase stability and peace in their respective regions. The recent secession of Great Britain from the EU (dubbed “Brexit”) may indicate a trending decrease in support for the EU from member nations. Going forward the EU will have to carefully balance their enforcement and management mechanisms as states now see leaving the organization as a viable option if they are not happy with the EU’s policies. Great Britain’s decision to leave the EU comes down to unwillingness to c.
Supranational Integration Versus Intergovernmental Structure: The European U...Abdeslam Badre, PhD
The thesis of this essay provokes a statement holding that the AU, compared the EU, has so far failed in its endeavor to develop an “integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in global arena”. The reason behind this partial failure is accounted for in terms the level of intergovernmental and supranational arrangements characterizing both the EU and AU. To support this claim, the paper suggests a comparative analysis of the functional mechanisms of each of the Unions, by discussing the variables of Intergovernmentalism and supranationalism, as distinguishing features between the two Unions. Three sections constitute the body of the essay: 1) a brief presentation of three key concepts: i) intergovernmentalism, ii) supranationalism, and iii) regional integration; 2) the historical contexts within which each of the Unions was created; and 3) a comparative analysis.
The aim of this Special Issue of Central European Political Studies is to
bring media scholars together and to reflect on the current trends in political journalism in our region. The focus of the articles is trained on the discovery of the shifts
and continuities in journalistic practises 25 years after the collapse of the communist regimes. Some of the findings and conclusions presented in the volume come
from studies conducted within the framework of international comparative research
projects such as Worlds of Journalism, Journalistic Role Performance Around the
Globe, or Media Accountability and Transparency in Europe (MediaAcT). The others
come from single, national empirical studies or analyses on the media systems conducted in the Central and Eastern countries.
The progressive regional agenda for South America: the case of Mercosur and i...Gustavo Matiuzzi de Souza
This work aims at exploring the relation between Mercosur's political agenda on borders and the local interactions at these spaces in the light of the 'left turn' in South America (2002-2014). This brief conjuncture analysis found that the 'regionalism by the left' did not foster structural changes in Mercosur nor resolved issues of coordination necessary for the border, regionalization dynamics to leave the informal sphere in which they reside
IIPPE 7th International Conference in Political Economy
‘Political Economy: International Trends and National Differences’
School of Economics & Management, University of Lisbon, Portugal
September 7-9, 2016
‘The Political Economy of the EU: an imperialist project in crisis’
Stavros Mavroudeas
Dept. of Economics
University of Macedonia
smavro@uom.gr
Abstract
This paper studies the Political Economy of the EU and Marxism’s position towards the latter. First, it surveys the different approaches – Mainstream, Heterodox and Marxist – that analyse the European integration process. Second, it proposes a Marxist value-theoretic analysis of the EU. Third, it proposes a periodization of the evolution of the European integration. Finally, following from the periodization of the previous section, it studies the current crisis of the EU.
The paper’s central thesis is that the European integration is an imperialist project, organised by the dominant capitals of the Western European countries and aiming initially to stabilize the Western European economies under the US auspices but later to create a competing global pole that challenges US global supremacy. An essential part of this project is the exploitation of weaker economies through a mechanism of transfers of value. This mechanism operates, albeit in a differentiated manner, both within and outside the EU. Thus, it is argued that the European integration is basically divided in two groups of countries: a dominant euro-centre and a dominated euro-periphery. Furthermore, it is argued that the European integration project is constituted on the abovementioned basis and cannot be reformed towards a ‘social Europe’ direction. Following from these, it is argued that the Left should struggle to dismantle this imperialist project instead of trying to reform it.
This analysis is based on a classical Marxist understanding of the theory of imperialism that rejects the ‘globalization’ thesis and maintains that nation-states remain the main agents of the international system. The analysis of the politico-economic structure of the European integration and the value transfer mechanisms (economic imperialist exploitation) follow from this thesis.
What are the chances of your country winning the 2018 World Cup?
FGV's mathematical model predicts that Brazil has the greatest chances of winning.
http://fgv.br/emap/copa-2018
Interval observer for uncertain time-varying SIR-SI model of vector-borne dis...FGV Brazil
The issue of state estimation is considered for an SIR-SI model describing a vector-borne disease such as dengue fever, with seasonal variations and uncertainties in the transmission rates. Assuming continuous measurement of the number of new infectives in the host population per unit time, a class of interval observers with estimate-dependent gain is constructed, and asymptotic error bounds are provided. The synthesis method is based on the search for a common linear Lyapunov function for monotone systems representing the evolution of the estimation errors.
Date: 2017
Authors:
Soledad Aronna, Maria
Bliman, Pierre-Alexandre
Ensuring successful introduction of Wolbachia in natural populations of Aedes...FGV Brazil
The control of the spread of dengue fever by introduction of the intracellular parasitic bacterium Wolbachia in populations of the vector Aedes aegypti, is presently one of the most promising tools for eliminating dengue, in the absence of an efficient vaccine. The success of this operation requires locally careful planning to determine the adequate number of individuals carrying the wolbachia parasite that need to be introduced into the natural population. The introduced mosquitoes are expected to eventually replace the Wolbachia-free population and guarantee permanent protection against the transmission of dengue to human. In this study, we propose and analyze a model describing the fundamental aspects of the competition between mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia and mosquitoes free of the parasite. We then use feedback control techniques to devise an introduction protocol which is proved to guarantee that the population converges to a stable equilibrium where the totality of mosquitoes carry Wolbachia.
Date: 2015-03-19
Authors:
Bliman, Pierre-Alexandre
Soledad Aronna, Maria
Coelho, Flávio Codeço
Silva, Moacyr da
The resource curse reloaded: revisiting the Dutch disease with economic compl...FGV Brazil
This paper shows that the Dutch disease can be more formally characterised as low economic complexity using ECI-type indicators; there is a solid and robust inverse relationship between exports concentrating on natural resources and economic complexity as measured by complexity indicators for a database of 122 countries from 1963 to 2013. In a large majority of cases, oil answers for shares in excess of 50% of exports. In addition to empirical panel analysis, we address case studies concerned with Indonesia and Nigeria and introduce a brief review of the theoretical literature on the topic. Indonesia is considered in the literature as a good example in avoiding the negative effects of the Dutch disease, whereas Nigeria is taken as a bad example in terms of institutions and policies adopted during the seventies and eighties. The empirical results show that complexity analysis and Big Data may offer significant contributions to the still-current debate surrounding the Dutch disease.
Date: 2017-03
Authors:
Camargo, Jhean Steffan Martines de
Gala, Paulo
The Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) was right: scale-free comple...FGV Brazil
The main purpose of this paper is to apply big-data and scale-free complex network techniques to the study of world trade, with a specific focus on the investigation of ECLA and structuralist ideas. A secondary objective is to illustrate the potentialities of the use of the new science of complex networks in economics, in what has been recently referred to as an econophysics research agenda. We work with a trade network of 101 countries and 762 products (SITC-4) which generated 1,756,224 trade links in 2013. The empirical results based on network analysis and computational methods reported here point in the direction of what ECLA economists used to argue; countries with higher income per capita concentrate in producing and exporting manufactured and complex goods at the center of the trade network; countries with lower income per capita specialize in producing and exporting non-complex commodities at the network’s periphery.
Date: 2017-03
Authors:
Gala, Paulo
Camargo, Jhean Steffan Martines de
Freitas, Elton
Cost of equity estimation for the Brazilian market: a test of the Goldman Sac...FGV Brazil
As an approach to determining the degree of integration of the Brazilian economy, this paper seeks to test the explanatory power of the Goldman Sachs Model for the expected returns by a foreign investor in the Brazilian market during the past eleven years (2004-2014). Using data for the stocks of 57 of the most actively traded firms at the BM&FBovespa, it begins by testing directly the degree of integration of the Brazilian economy during this period, in an attempt to better understand the context in which the model has been used. In sequence, in an indirect test of the Goldman Sachs model, the risk factor betas (market risk and country risk) of the sample stocks were estimated and a panel regression of expected stock returns on these betas was performed. It was found that country risk is not a statistically significant explanation of expected returns, indicating that it is being added in an ad hoc fashion by market practitioners to their cost of equity calculations. Thus, although there is evidence of a positive and significant relationship between systematic risk and return, the results for country risk demonstrate that the Goldman Sachs Model was not a satisfactory explanation of expected returns in the Brazilian market in the past eleven years, leading us to question the validity of its application in practice. By adding a size premium factor to the model, there is evidence of a negative and significant relationship between companies’ size and return, although country risk remains not satisfactory to explain stock expected returns.
Date: 2017-03
Authors:
Guanais, Luiz Felipe Poli
Sanvicente, Antonio Zoratto
Sheng, Hsia Hua
A dynamic Nelson-Siegel model with forward-looking indicators for the yield c...FGV Brazil
This paper proposes a Factor-Augmented Dynamic Nelson-Siegel (FADNS) model to predict the yield curve in the US that relies on a large data set of weekly financial and macroeconomic variables. The FADNS model significantly improves interest rate forecasts relative to the extant models in the literature. For longer horizons, it beats autoregressive alternatives, with a reduction in mean absolute error of up to 40%. For shorter horizons, it offers a good challenge to autoregressive forecasting models, outperforming them for the 7- and 10-year yields. The out-of-sample analysis shows that the good performance comes mostly from the forward-looking nature of the variables we employ. Including them reduces the mean absolute error in 5 basis points on average with respect to models that reflect only past macroeconomic events.
Date: 2017-03
Authors:
Vieira, Fausto José Araújo
Chague, Fernando Daniel
Fernandes, Marcelo
Improving on daily measures of price discoveryFGV Brazil
We formulate a continuous-time price discovery model in which the price discovery measure varies (stochastically) at daily frequency. We estimate daily measures of price discovery using a kernel-based OLS estimator instead of running separate daily VECM regressions as standard in the literature. We show that our estimator is not only consistent, but also outperforms the standard daily VECM in finite samples. We illustrate our theoretical findings by studying the price discovery process of 10 actively traded stocks in the U.S. from 2007 to 2013.
Date: 2017-03
Authors:
Dias, Gustavo Fruet
Fernandes, Marcelo
Scherrer, Cristina Mabel
Disentangling the effect of private and public cash flows on firm valueFGV Brazil
This paper presents a simple model for dual-class stock shares, in which common shareholders receive both public and private cash flows (i.e. dividends and any private benefit of holding voting rights) and preferred shareholders only receive public cash flows (i.e. dividends). The dual-class premium is driven not only by the firm's ability to generate cash flows, but also by voting rights. We isolate these two effects in order to identify the role of voting rights on equity-holders' wealth. In particular, we employ a cointegrated VAR model to retrieve the impact of the voting rights value on cash flow rights. We finnd a negative relation between the value of the voting right and the preferred shareholders' wealth for Brazilian cross- listed firms. In addition, we examine the connection between the voting right value and market and firm specific risks.
Date: 2017-03
Authors:
Autor
Scherrer, Cristina Mabel
Fernandes, Marcelo
Mandatory IFRS adoption in Brazil and firm valueFGV Brazil
Using diff-in-diff approaches and the propensity-score matching, this study focuses on firm-level Tobin´s q and Market-to-book outcomes for Brazilian firms who in 2008 were required by Law 11.638/07 to adopt the full International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by 2010. Brazil’s tier-system of corporate governance standards for publicly-traded firms, its uniquely wholesale adoption of the IFRS, and the previously considerable gap between its national GAAP and IFRS readily lend the scenario to research, which thus far finds small or inconsistent results when focused on IFRS adoption-related outcomes in Europe and China. However, while these features recommend the transitioned Brazilian equity market to analysis, additional unique features, such as its small population size and its limited historical data -- of varied quality – increase the challenge in selecting a suitable empirical methodology. Using quarterly data from 2006-2011, control firms in the Nivel II and Novo Mercado tiers of Bovespa which already complied with higher quality accounting standards are matched to treatment firms in the Regular and Nivel I tiers with similar averaged values of size and sector. Our results suggest that there is a positive impact on Tobin´s q and Market-to-book for firms who are forced to adopt IFRS in Brazil. We can observe the same results when we consider all variables winsorized at 5% level. We also find a positive relation between the firm value (measured by Tobin´s q and Market-to-book) and net income. Firms with higher net income are more likely to have higher Tobin´s q and Market-tobook. In an opposite way, we find a negative relation among firm value, size, Ebit-to-sales, sales growth and PPE-to-sales. All results are statistically significant at 1% level. '
Date: 2017-03
Authors:
Sampaio, Joelson Oliveira
Gallucci Netto, Humberto
Silva, Vinícius Augusto Brunassi
Dotcom bubble and underpricing: conjectures and evidenceFGV Brazil
We provide conjectures for what caused the price spiral and the high underpricing of the dotcom bubble of 1999–2000. We raise two conjectures for the price spiral. First, given the uncertainty about the growth opportunities generated by the new technologies and their spillover effects across technology industries, investors saw the inflow of a large number of high-growth firms as a sign of high growth rates for the market as a whole. Second, investors interpreted the wave of highly underpriced IPOs as an opportunity to obtain gains by investing in newly public companies. The underpricing resulted from the emergence a large cohort of firms racing for market leadership. Fundamentals pricing at the IPO was part of their strategy. We provide evidence for our conjectures. We show that returns on NASDAQ composite index are explained by the flow of high-growth (or highly underpriced) IPOs; the high underpricing can be fully explained by firms’ characteristics and strategic goals. We also show that, contrary to alternatives explanations, underpricing was not associated with top underwriting, there was no deterioration of issuers’ quality, and top underwriters and analysts became more selective.
Date: 2017-03
Authors:
Autor
Carvalho, Antonio Gledson de
Pinheiro, Roberto Benjamin
Sampaio, Joelson Oliveira
Contingent judicial deference: theory and application to usury lawsFGV Brazil
Legislation that seems unreasonable to courts is less likely to be followed. Building on this premise, we propose a model and obtain two main results. First, the enactment of legislation prohibiting something raises the probability that courts will allow related things not expressly forbidden. In particular, the imposition of an interest rate ceiling can make it more likely that courts will validate contracts with interest rates below the legislated cap. Second, legal uncertainty is greater with legislation that commands little deference from courts than with legislation that commands none. We discuss examples of effects of legislated prohibitions (and, in particular, usury laws) that are consistent with the model.
Date: 2017-03
Authors:
Guimarães, Bernardo
Salama, Bruno Meyerhof
Education quality and returns to schooling: evidence from migrants in BrazilFGV Brazil
We provide a new education quality index for states within a developing country using 2010 Brazilian data. This measure is constructed based on the notion that the financial returns obtained from an additional year of schooling can be
seen as being derived from the value that market forces assign to this education. We use migrant data to estimate returns to schooling of individuals who studied in different states but who work in the same labor market. We find very heterogeneous educational qualities across states: the poorest Brazilian region presents education quality levels that are approximately equal to one-third of the average of all other regions, a gap three times larger than the one suggested by standardized test scores. We compare our index with standardized test scores, educational outcome variables, and public expenditure per schooling stage at the state level, producing new evidence related to education in a large developing country. We conduct an education quality-adjusted development accounting exercise for Brazilian states and find that human capital accounts for 26%-31% of output per worker differences. Adjusting for quality increases human capital’s explanatory power by 60%.
Date: 2017-02
Authors:
Brotherhood, Luiz Mário
Ferreira, Pedro Cavalcanti
Santos, Cézar Augusto Ramos
On October 31st and November 1st, 2016, the Center for Regulation and Infrastructure from Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV CERI) organized a two-day workshop discussion in collaboration with the World Bank and ABRACE. The event gathered regulators, government representatives, academics, operators, financial institutions and investors. The debate focused on the main challenges faced by the current restructuring process of the Brazilian gas industry. This document presents the main points discussed during the debates.
Date: 2017-01
Authors:
Vazquez, Miguel
Amorim, Lívia
Dutra, Joísa Campanher
The impact of government equity investment on internationalization: the case ...FGV Brazil
We examine the impact of government equity ownership on the degree of internationalization of emerging market firms. Our analysis of 173 Brazilian publicly traded firms from 2002 to 2011 shows that the higher the equity held by the state through the state investment bank and the pension funds of SOEs and privatized SOEs, the higher the firm’s degree of internationalization. Firms in which the government shared control with families, and with both families and foreigners, had a higher degree of internationalization. Our findings underline the importance of the institutional context in explaining the internationalization of Brazilian firms.
Date: 2016
Author:
Sheng, Hsia Hua
Techno-government networks: Actor-Network Theory in electronic government res...FGV Brazil
The Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is a theoretical approach for the study of controversies associated with scientific discoveries and technological innovations through the networks of actors involved in such actions. This approach has generated studies in Information Systems (IS) since 1990, however few studies have examined the use of this approach in the e-government area. Thus, this paper aims to broaden the theoretical approaches on e-government, by presenting ANT as a theoretical framework for e-government studies via published empirical work. For this reason, the historical background of ANT is described, duly listing its theoretical and methodological premises. In addition to this, one presented ANT-based e-government works, in order to illustrate how ANT can be applied in empirical studies in this knowledge area.
Date: 2016
Authors:
Fornazin, Marcelo
Joia, Luiz Antonio
Condemning corruption while condoning inefficiency: an experimental investiga...FGV Brazil
This article reports results from an economic experiment that investigates to what extent voters punish corruption and waste in elections. While both are responsible for a loss of welfare for voters, they are not necessarily perceived as equally immoral. The empirical literature in political agency has not yet dealt with these two dimensions that determine voters’ choices. Our results suggest that morality and norms are indeed crucial for a superior voting equilibrium in systems with heterogeneous politicians: while corruption is always punished, self-interest alone – in the absence of norms – leads to the acceptance and perpetuation of waste and social losses.
Date: 2016
Authors:
Arvate, Paulo Roberto
Souza, Sergio Mittlaender Leme de
Normal Labour/ Stages of Labour/ Mechanism of LabourWasim Ak
Normal labor is also termed spontaneous labor, defined as the natural physiological process through which the fetus, placenta, and membranes are expelled from the uterus through the birth canal at term (37 to 42 weeks
A review of the growth of the Israel Genealogy Research Association Database Collection for the last 12 months. Our collection is now passed the 3 million mark and still growing. See which archives have contributed the most. See the different types of records we have, and which years have had records added. You can also see what we have for the future.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
A workshop hosted by the South African Journal of Science aimed at postgraduate students and early career researchers with little or no experience in writing and publishing journal articles.
Synthetic Fiber Construction in lab .pptxPavel ( NSTU)
Synthetic fiber production is a fascinating and complex field that blends chemistry, engineering, and environmental science. By understanding these aspects, students can gain a comprehensive view of synthetic fiber production, its impact on society and the environment, and the potential for future innovations. Synthetic fibers play a crucial role in modern society, impacting various aspects of daily life, industry, and the environment. ynthetic fibers are integral to modern life, offering a range of benefits from cost-effectiveness and versatility to innovative applications and performance characteristics. While they pose environmental challenges, ongoing research and development aim to create more sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives. Understanding the importance of synthetic fibers helps in appreciating their role in the economy, industry, and daily life, while also emphasizing the need for sustainable practices and innovation.
This slide is special for master students (MIBS & MIFB) in UUM. Also useful for readers who are interested in the topic of contemporary Islamic banking.
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty, In...Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty,
International FDP on Fundamentals of Research in Social Sciences
at Integral University, Lucknow, 06.06.2024
By Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
Brazil and Regional Integration in South America: Lessons from the EU’s Crisis
1. Introduction
The academic debate on regionalism and regional integration has
been intrinsically linked to the evolution of the European Communi-
ties from the 1950s to today. As the earliest and only project of regio-
nal cooperation to attain a high level of supra-nationalism, the Euro-
pean project which led to the creationof the European Union (EU) in
the early 1990s, has been used as the central empirical object in the
study of states’capacity to move from intergovernmental cooperati-
on to full-fledged integration. As such, it has been used as the basis
for the development of theory of regional integration but also for po-
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* Articlesubmittedon September16th, 2013 and approvedfor publicationinNovember1st,2013.
** Elena Lazarou holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Cambridge. Dr.
Lazarou is Head of the Centre for International Relations of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV)
and Assistant Professor at FGV’s School of Social Sciences (CPDOC). Her interests include Euro-
pean Studies, Foreign Policy Analysis and Regional Integration. E-mail: elena.lazarou@fgv.br.
CONTEXTO INTERNACIONAL Rio de Janeiro, vol. 35, no
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Brazil and Regional
Integration in South
America: Lessons
from the EU’s Crisis*
Elena Lazarou**
2. licy-oriented thinking regarding regional strategizing. Both this the-
ory and policy have expanded across the world, guiding the concep-
tualization of regionalism across a number of regions.
The idea of “model power” is somehow connected with the academic
debates on the nature of the EU’s identity as an international player
and its influence on international and regional developments across
the world. Scholars of European integration (e.g. CEDERMAN,
2001; SMITH, 2003; LUCARELLI; MANNERS, 2006) have intro-
duced various new terms in order to explain the non-material power
of the EU. Most famously, the notion of “normative power Europe”
conceptualizes the EU as a changer of norms in the international
system (MANNERS, 2002, p. 252).
Such a normative dimension lies at the centre of the EU “model” and
its evolution since the late 1950s. Moreover, its significant regional
achievements have led the EU to perceive itself as an example of ef-
fective and legitimate governance, which other countries and regions
can and do emulate (TORRENT, 2002). Therefore, the “export” or
“diffusion” of norms has become intrinsically linked to the EU’s ex-
ternal relations policy, a significant part of which is the promotion of
regional integration and cooperation in other parts of the world.
Thus, “the ideational impact captured by Manner’s notion of norma-
tive power Europe (NPE) appears potentially most consequential in
the realm of global regionalism” (LENZ, 2013). Nevertheless, the
past few years have marked the beginning of a new critical discussi-
on, regarding the transformation of the focus of regional integration
studies, moving away from the monopoly of the EU – and the impli-
cation that it has been, directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly,
imitated by most regionalization initiatives across the globe (see
FIORAMONTI, 2012).
With these preliminary thoughts in mind, the first part of this paper
introduces the idea of the EU as a “model” of regional integration,
Elena Lazarou
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3. linking it to the literature on Europe as a normative power. The se-
cond part discusses the influence of the EU model on regional coope-
ration and integration in South America. In particular, it focuses on
the discursive use of the model in Brazilian foreign policy during the
two tenures of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as the do-
minant rhetoric for the promotion of regional integration, especially
in the case of the Mercado Común del Sur (Common Market of the
South, MERCOSUR) and the Unión de Naciones Suramericanas
(Union of South American Nations, UNASUR). The last part looks
at the impact of the financial crisis on the “deconstruction” of this
ideal model of European integration and attempts to discern how this
will influence the future discourse on regional cooperation integrati-
on in South America, and primarily in Brazil. To illustrate the shift
that has occurred in Brazilian views of regionalism, this part also dis-
cusses the Brazilian support of a new form of regional integration, as
embodied in the creation of CELAC, the Community of Latin Ame-
rican and Caribbean States.
The European Union’s
Model of Regional
Integration
The concept of regionalism evokes much controversy on many diffe-
rent levels. By and large scholars agree that we are experiencing a
transition between an old system and a new one, but the causes and
contours of this new system are up for debate (BACCINI; DUR,
2012; POWERS; GOERTZ, 2011; BALDWIN, 2011). Yet so far, in
the study of regional integration no entity figures as prominently as
the EU. In the prevalent literature on the subject, the European inte-
gration project is oftentimes used as the key example for the building
and testing of theories explaining why states choose to integrate (e.g.
HOFFMAN, 1966; LINDBERG, 1963; HAAS, 1963; MO-
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America: Lessons from the EU’s Crisis
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4. RAVCSIK, 1991) and even as the basis for the examination of the
overall logic of regional integration (MATTLI, 1999).
Until recently, scholarly research on regionalism has developed
along two lines of thought. On the one hand, social scientists (predo-
minantly economists) have interpreted regional integration as a form
of wealth (re)distribution, often coupled with adjustments to the wel-
fare state due to increasing globalization. Thus, their approach to re-
gional cooperation has been influenced by the developments of inter-
national trade liberalization and growing interdependence (VINER,
1952; BALASSA, 1961), a view which is still predominant in the so-
cial sciences literature (CHRISTIE, 2002; MATTLI, 1999;
EICHENGREEN, 1992).
Political scientists, on the other hand, have put forward an approach
that focuses on the policy and institutional dimensions of regionali-
zation. Within this context, they have emphasized the importance of
the EU as a supranational formation leading its member states to-
wards greater integration and policy coordination (BELLAMY;
CASTIGLIONE, 1998). As a result, the particular form of cooperati-
on promoted by the EU has produced deep regionalism within its re-
alm, increasing the states’willingness to sacrifice a degree of sovere-
ignty in order to harmonize, coordinate and integrate policies
(HAAS, 1963; LINDBERG, 1963; LAFFAN, 1998).
What makes the EU unique is the economic, political, social and ar-
guably ideational “fusion” of most member states’policies. It is cer-
tainly the only case of functional regional integration involving su-
pranational governance, shared competencies and a pooling of sove-
reignty(KEOHANE;HOFFMANN,1991).Whilecommonmarkets
and customs unions are less uncommon, the EU has evolved from
that level into a political community with its own institutions, legal
system, policies, values and principles. The process of “spillover”
throughwhichthishasoccurredisperhapsthekeytothemodel’suni-
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5. queness.
1
Due to the resulting ever-closer integration, the (now 28)
EU member states have moved from sharing a Common Market, to
forming a Single Market, involving the free movement of people, go-
ods and services. Moreover, in 1992 the Maastricht Treaty introdu-
ced the EU citizenship that, alongside national citizenships, provides
the citizens of the member states with additional rights and obligati-
ons.
Another significant characteristic of the EU model lies in the transfe-
rence of sovereignty from national decision-makers to the supranati-
onal and intergovernmental institutions headquartered in Brussels.
Thoseinstitutions,governedbytheprinciples andprocedures enshri-
ned in EU law (especially the founding treaties), enact policies exhi-
biting the “particular” characteristics and norms embedded in the
Union itself as a political community. In addition, the increasing em-
powerment of supranational institutions (e.g. the European Commis-
sion and European Parliament) in high politics areas such as foreign
affairs contributes to defining the EU as a single player in the interna-
tional arena and as an aspiring global power, even more so since the
enactment of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, which established the role of
Presidentof theEuropean Counciland High Representativefor Fore-
ign Affairs and Security Policy.
The achievement of such high levels of economic and political inte-
grationalongsidethemaintenanceofwidespreadprosperityhas been
a key element shaping the EU’s identity in the international system
and in the projection of its “power”. Thus, in recent years, the debate
on the EU’s capacity to “export” its own model has been largely in-
fluenced by a general reconsideration of the nature of power itself in
a continually transforming international environment (BICCHI,
2006; PENKETH, 2007; SJURSEN, 2006).
Indeed, while the centrality of power in relations among states and
international players is unquestioned, the definition of the concept
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6. has undergone significant reconsiderations as new developments in
the international arena have eroded the classical understanding of po-
wer as military might. In this spirit, Joseph Nye has coined the term
“soft power”, involving ideational rather than material elements, as
“the ability to achieve goals through attraction rather than coercion
[…] by convincing others to follow or getting them to agree to norms
and institutions that produce the desired behavior” (NYE, 2004, p.
86). While Nye’s work drew predominantly on the “soft power” of
the United States (US), scholars of European integration, and parti-
cularly those engaged with the EU’s foreign policy and identity as an
international player (CEDERMAN, 2001; SMITH, 2003;
LUCARELLI; MANNERS, 2006; SJURSEN, 2006), introduced a
new terminology to describe the influence the EU exerts in global af-
fairs. Following the original formulation of François Duchêne
(1972), who described Europe as a “civilian power”, new labels have
come to include “ethical power” (AGGESTAM, 2008), “post-mo-
dern power” (KIM; PASSONI, 2010), “quiet superpower”
(MORAVCSIK, 2009) and, most famously, “normative power”
(MANNERS, 2002). According to Ian Manners, the EU as a norma-
tive power has an ontologicalquality (thatthe EU can be conceptuali-
zed as a changer of norms in the international system), a positivist
quality (that the EU acts to change norms in the international system)
and a normative quality (that the EU should act to extend its norms
into the international system) (MANNERS, 2002, p. 252).
Theideasof“soft”,“civilian”and“normative”powerhavebeenused
with particular intensity in the quest for Europe’s identity as an pla-
yer in the international system. It has been argued that the EU’s fore-
ign policy derives directly fromthevery natureof theEU itself and its
original telos, which is the ambition to achieve long-lasting peace
through integration (SMITH, 2003). This inherent principle places
particular emphasis on multilateral cooperation, the primacy of di-
plomacy (as opposed to coercion), the use of mediation to resolve
Elena Lazarou
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7. conflicts and the promotion of human rights and the rule of law
(KEUKELEIRE, 2010).
Accordingly, the way in which the EU makes and implements its fo-
reign policy is not only “reflected in the content of the policy produ-
ced”(SMITH,2003,p.18)butalsointhelegacyandachievements of
the EU itself. In this vein, the norms and values that characterize the
EU are also promoted and diffused through a series of agreements
and partnerships with third countries or groupings of states. Engage-
ment with the latter groups has significantly increased in the past
threedecades,as partofthe“new regionalism”agenda,whichcarries
with it a strong component of external region-to-region engagement,
introducing new dynamics to international relations.
Besides trade, diplomacy and economic cooperation, the promotion
of regional integration initiatives in other areas of the world is among
the most important external policies through which EU directly or in-
directly attempts to increase its soft power (SMITH, 2003; LENZ,
2008). Such a focus on regionalization is not a mere projection of the
EU’s experience, but it is viewed as a key goal to reform international
relations. For example, both the European Security Strategy and the
Report on its implementation emphasized the necessity to promote
regional organizations and processes as key cornerstones of a safer
and better organized system of global governance (EUROPEAN
COUNCIL, 2003; 2008).
In the promotion of regional cooperation/integration in other parts of
the world, the EU’s normative power manifests itself through its abi-
lity to influence the political, economic and social institutions by me-
ans of persuasion and attraction rather than coercion. In this vein, it
has been argued that the source of this persuasion/attraction is the ap-
peal of the EU model itself as an example of successful regional inte-
gration (LENZ, 2008; SMITH, 2003). For instance, Fawcett and
Hurrell (1995) maintain that the logic of interregional cooperation,
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8. that is the way in which the EU carries out its relations with other re-
gions or groups of states, derives from the success of the European
model, which has transformed relations between formerly warring
parties into a cooperative structure where divergent interests conver-
ge through negotiation and commonly agreed upon institutions.
Thus, the EU has been promoting regional integration largely by “ex-
porting” its own model and norms to other regions, which is also evi-
denced by the emphasis given to the promotion of regional cooperati-
on in the EU’s interregional agreements and partnerships with key re-
gional powers (TORRENT, 2002; TELÒ, 2007).
The Relevance of the EU
Model in Brazil’s Regional
Policy
Regional integration in South America took off with the creation of
MERCOSUR – the Common Market of the South – through the Tre-
aty of Asuncion in March 1991 by a joint decision of Argentina, Bra-
zil, Uruguay and Paraguay. MERCOSUR constitutes a customs uni-
on and free trade area, which, among other institutions, maintains its
own executive institution (Common Market Group) and a decisi-
on-making body comprised of national ministers (Common Market
Council).
The first years of MERCOSUR coincided with a gradual shift in Bra-
zilian foreign policy towards the region: while previously Brazil had
put very little effort in promoting the idea of complex interdependen-
ce in the region, in the post Cold-War era regionalism became increa-
singly more important for the Brazilian foreign policy agenda, rea-
ching its peak during the Lula governments between 2003 and 2010
(SPEKTOR, 2010). Strategically, it has been argued, this reorientati-
on aimed at consolidating Brazil’s leadership in the region (SOUTO
MAIOR, 2006). Atthelevelof politicaldiscourse, this shiftimplied a
rather enthusiastic endorsement of the European international pro-
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9. ject as the key reference point for South American integration, lar-
gely based on the former economic, political and social achieve-
ments (LENZ, 2008).
As the undisputed leader in regional initiatives, due largely to its eco-
nomic size and power, Brazil has often looked to Europe in its discur-
sive construction of an institutional project for its region. President
Lula and his Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, made European-style
integration in South America a key goal. As early as his first speech
after being elected in 2002, the Brazilian President made it clear that
commercial agreements between regional blocs would be a foreign
policy priority, thus echoing the EU’s traditional preference for inter-
regional trade (ASSIS; MACHADO DA COSTA JR., 2003). In this
regard, not only would MERCOSUR need more integration inter-
nally, but it would also need to look strategically at the rest of the
world to seal new partnerships, including in Africa and the Middle
East. Soon after the new government’s formation, Foreign Minister
Celso Amorim made explicit reference to the EU-model by arguing
thatMERCOSUR’s“agendaofstrongertiesinregionalintegrationis
a multifaceted project, similar to the European Union” (AMORIM,
2003):
It is important to recognize that the most suc-
cessful processes of integration existing today
had as their primary foundation the strengthe-
ning of their legal framework and institutions.
The European Union experience proves the im-
portance of seeking to harmonize the set of ru-
les of the member states relating to the integra-
tion process at the regional level (AMORIM,
2004a).
Brazil has also been ardently supporting the creation of a di-
rectly-elected Parliament of MERCOSUR, echoing concerns gene-
rated in Europe regarding the lack of legitimacy and representation in
regional organizations (NUNES, 2010). In 2006 MERCOSUR’s Jo-
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10. int Parliamentary Committee was formally replaced by a Parliament,
also thanks to the technical and financial support provided by its Eu-
ropean counterpart. Yet, due to the inability of MERCOSUR’s mem-
ber states to agree on issues of proportionality and representation,
there has been significant delay in making this new institution opera-
tional.
Perhaps most ambitiously, Brazil has viewed MERCOSUR as a part
of a larger South American integration vision, wider and deeper than
the existing Common Market of the South. Seeds of this project were
already sown by Itamar Franco’s government (1992-1995), which
pursued negotiations on the South American Free Trade Area and
culminated with the creation of the South American Community of
Nations in 2004, renamed as the UNASUR in 2007. Also this se-
quence followed in the footsteps of the EU, which linguistically mo-
ved from being a Community to becoming a Union in 1992 with the
objective of underlining a deeper degree of integration.
UNASUR incorporates 12 member states and aims, among other
things, to collectively address cultural, social, economic and political
issues, including socialpolicies, energy, infrastructure, environment,
the reduction of inequalities and the promotion of peace, and demo-
cracy. Similarly to the EU, it is institutionally equipped with sectoral
ministerial councils to address special areas such as drug trafficking,
defense, development, infrastructure and energy. Another important
institution for further regional integration that has enjoyed signifi-
cant Brazilian support has been the Latin American Bank for Regio-
nal Development, which is strongly influenced by Jacques Delors’
policies for cohesion and regional development, and is reminiscent
of the European Central Bank.
A 2010 address by Celso Amorim’s to the MERCOSUR Parliament
reveals ideas and processes drawn from the EU model, which are of-
ten framed in the classic EU language:
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11. In nearly eight years of President Lula’s tenure,
Brazil has invested in a new concept of regional
integration. A concept that, without disregar-
ding the economic and commercial aspects, se-
eks to incorporate the political, social and cul-
tural dimensions and, most importantly, a
strong sense of solidarity (AMORIM, 2010, p.
2, author’s translation and emphasis added).
Besides a clear social agenda, Amorim also envisions a
MERCOSUR “which is not only the MERCOSUR of economies or
of states, but also the MERCOSUR of the people” (AMORIM, 2010,
p. 7, author’s translation and emphasis added).
Even here, of course, the EU’s model is clearly providing the back-
ground, not only with the evolution that eventually led to the direct
election of the European Parliament in 1979, the institution of the
Ombudsman and the popular initiative legislation, but especially
with the debate over the Constitutional Convention of 2004.
Although these general concerns are common to any polity, it is only
after a certain level of integration that they begin to emerge. In this re-
gard, it is clear that Amorim and Lula’s government have been thin-
king of the future projections of MERCOSUR along the lines of the
step-by-step process outlined in the introduction, whereby a com-
mon market should evolve into some type of economic and political
union.
In terms of external relations, particularly regarding the engagement
of MERCOSUR with the wider international community, the go-
vernment’s discourse appears to be influenced by the EU’s strategies
of interregionalism, engagement with the developing world, demo-
cracy promotion and special relationships with the neighbourhood.
Brazil has been supporting the conclusion of negotiations on services
with Colombia, investments with Chile and the deepening of the
MERCOSUR-Peru agreement, while at the same time proposing
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12. more favorable trade terms for certain Bolivian products, such as tex-
tiles. It also emphasizes the need for support, and aid for peace-buil-
ding and reconstruction in those of the “sister countries” which are
going through difficult times, such as Haiti. Both these elements are
reminiscent of the EU’s policy in the Mediterranean, previously il-
lustrated in initiatives such as the European Neighborhood Policy.
Moreover, the preservation and consolidation of democracy in the re-
gion is crucial and central in the MERCOSUR vision as presented by
Brazil, indicating at the same time the aspiration for MERCOSUR to
be more than a trade organization, and resemble a political entity in
the making.
Nevertheless, while bearing noticeable similarities to the EC/EU in
terms of its economic and trade objectives, MERCOSUR is four ti-
mes larger than the EU in geographical territory and is comprised of
only 4 members. Venezuela’s controversial full membership has
been pending since 2005 and was only completed in 2012, while Bo-
livia is in the process of becoming a full member since December
2012. Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru have only been granted as-
sociate status. Both for scholars but also for pro-integration policy
makers in South America the ongoing challenge for the evolution of
MERCOSURhas beentodraw onintegration“lessons”fromEurope
– on which most regional integration theory – and adapt them to the
particular needs of the continent, such as development and poverty
alleviation. In this regard, it is interesting to note that the EU remains
a key reference point even in the analysis of MERCOSUR’s weak-
nesses
About the difficulties in South American inte-
gration, such as free circulation among coun-
tries […] there must be an understanding that
MERCOSUR is just like the European Union
was many decades ago. We are trying to grow
fast, but evidently [we] do not have, yet, almost
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13. fifty years of existence. So, […] we try to do
“fifty years in five” (AMORIM, 2004b).
Speaking about the creation of UNASUR on national radio, Lula
himself addressed preoccupations about internal differences among
the South American states by referring to the fact that the European
states too often disagreed about important matters, such as Iraq, the
constitution and the monetary union. Yet, he concluded, that never
led to a rupture of the EU or a threat to its existence (RADIOBRÁS,
2008).
The next section reflects on whether the EU model is still viewed as
viableandattractivetoBrazilafterthebreakoutoftheEuro-crisisand
the resulting internal disputes.
The Impact of the
Euro-crisis on Brazilian
Views on Regional
Integration
Although the turn of the millennium ushered the EU into a consolida-
tion phase, it also revealed more or less hidden weaknesses and, on
various occasions, posed several challenges to the deepening of the
integration process. Legitimacy and effectiveness crises hit the Euro-
pean Communities and then the EU several times during its life. In
2005, the proposed Constitution was rejected by the French and
Dutch referenda. Finally, since 2008 (and more prominently since
2010), the EU’s common currency, the Euro, has been under attack
due to the risk of sovereign debt default by some member states hit by
the global economic crisis. Talks of potential disintegration of the
Union, or at least of the Eurozone, have abounded, and solidarity wit-
hin the EU has reached unprecedented lows.
The explosion of the financial crisis in Europe led to high levels of
unemployment, a drop in structural growth and excessive levels of
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14. sovereign debt. Moreover, an ageing population and increasing de-
pendence on resources have aggravated the crisis. Since the crisis hit
member states unevenly, with some countries faring rather well and
others sinking into a protracted recession, the implications for the
stability and solidarity of the integration process were inevitable. In
less than two years, the gap between donors and recipients within the
EU grew, bringing with it pessimistic forecasts about the future of re-
gional integration and a lack of support for the EU in many member
states.
With the EU emerging as one of the most hard-hit casualties of the fi-
nancial crisis and with intra-EU inequalities reaching unprecedented
peaks, new doubts were raised as to the capacity of Europe to provide
leadership in a fundamentally changed international order. As main-
tainedbythePrimeMinisterofTurkey,oneoftheso-calledemerging
economies along with other powerhouses such as China, India and
Brazil, “the financial crisis has laid bare Europe’s need for greater
dynamism and change”:
European labor markets and social-security
systems are comatose. European economies
are stagnant. European societies are near geria-
tric. Can Europe retain power and credibility in
the new world order […]? (ERDOGAN,
2011).
At the same time, this development began to cast a shadow over the
alleged success of an economic and political union without a central
government, over the real state of the widely heralded “solidarity”
principle at the basis of the EU integration experiment and, overall,
about the actual benefits of European integration for its citizenry.
2
By contrast, just like most emerging powers, Brazil got over the fi-
nancial crisis quite quickly and with relatively minor shocks. The re-
cession only hit the Latin American country for five months in
2008-2009, largely due to the panic triggered by the financial mar-
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15. kets. In 2008 the Ibovespa index hit the ground slightly below the
30000 points, creating losses worth billions for major Brazilian com-
panies like Sadia and Votorantim. In response, the Brazilian Central
Bank injected millions of dollars into the market; unlike the US and
Europe, however, no bail out for national companies was needed.
The government decided to temporarily suspend the tax on industrial
products in the hope of keeping the Brazilian consumers in the game
and helping the automobile industry. With these measures in place
and having registered 61 months of continuous growth until the crisis
hit, Brazil managed to achieve an average of growth rate over 3.5% of
GDP. Due to its relatively low interdependence with the rest of the
world, the whole of Latin America emerged relatively unscathed
from the crisis. Thus, while Europe’s downward spiral continued,
particularly after the 2009-2010 Greek debt crisis, Latin America
slowly but steadily gained credibility in international economy. The
cover of a 2010 issue of The Economist (NOBODY’S…, 2010b) de-
picting the world upside down under the heading “Latin America:
Nobody’s backyard” drew stark comparisons with a suffering Euro-
pe, discussed in a previous issue titled “Can anyone perk up Euro-
pe?”, which portrayed a bent Eiffel Tower (CAN …, 2010a).
Within this context, two main narratives – questioning the success of
regional integration a la EU – emerged out of an analysis of post-cri-
sis discourses among Brazilian policy makers and opinion leaders.
The era of Rising Powers
Brazilian policy makers and opinion leaders have interpreted the EU
crisis as further evidence of the power shift and global transformati-
ons occurring in the 21st century. In its most classical formulation,
these changes affect the global economy and give birth to a new inter-
national arena in which emerging economies such as Brazil become
the new poles of power. This idea has been one of the cornerstones of
Lula’s foreign policy, as illustrated by the following excerpt from a
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16. speech delivered at the 2008 G20 Finance Ministers’meeting in Sao
Paulo:
We need to enhance the participation of deve-
loping countries in the decision mechanisms of
the global economy. We must re-assess the role
of the existing organisms or create new ones, in
order to strengthen the supervision and regula-
tion of financial markets (LULA DA SILVA,
2008a).
The emergence of Brazil and other new player as economic power-
houses of the 21st
century is therefore associated with the need to re-
form global governance. In this context, the crisis is viewed as an op-
portunity to fast-forward necessary reforms. In a 2010 interview, Mi-
nister of Finance, Guido Mantega (2010) stated:
The European crisis did not get in the way [of
the reform of multilateral organizations], quite
the contrary. The European crisis puts forward
the need of continuing the reforms and measu-
res that were established. […] the European
crisis establishes the need of the G20 existence
(MANTEGA, 2010).
Lula himself drew the link between the crisis and global reforms by
arguing:
We need new governance, one more open to
participation. Brazil is ready to take on its res-
ponsibility. This is not the time for narrow nati-
onalisms [or] for individual solutions. It is the
time for a pact between governments to create a
new global finance architecture, capable of
promoting safety and development on an equal
basis for all […]. We need to enhance the parti-
cipation of developing countries in the decisi-
on mechanisms of the global economy (LULA
DA SILVA, 2008a).
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17. Although the redistribution of political and economic weight in glo-
bal affairs preceded the fall of Wall Street and the Euro-crisis, these
latter have accelerated the need for a new direction: “in so far as the
crisis appeared in the centre of capitalism, big developing countries
have become, in a way, guarantors of the world’s stability. In this cri-
sis, they are a part of the solution, not of the problem” (AMORIM,
2009).
References to groups like IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa), the
G20 or the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)
and their expanding influence have also become more common. The
official discourse revolves around the fact that “this time, the emer-
ging countries have helped to re-establish balance in the developed
countries. […] Emerging countries are contributing more than the ot-
hers to tackle the crisis” (MANTEGA, 2010). Quite importantly, this
shift has its epicenter in Europe, where the sovereign debt crisis has
revealed a reversed trend: it is now for Brazil to help Greece “get out
of its crisis” (AMORIM, 2010).
Interestingly, also the evolution of regional cooperation and integra-
tion is affected by the global power shift. MERCOSUR, for instance,
figures prominentlyinBrazil’s agendaforglobalreforms.According
to the former president,
MERCOSUR, together with our friends of La-
tin America and the Caribbean, cannot passi-
vely watch the global crisis debate. We have an
important role to play in the construction of a
new political and economical architecture, of
international, multipolar and multilateral di-
mensions (LULA DA SILVA, 2008b).
While Brazil is increasingly viewed as a forward-looking rising star,
Europe is perceived as facing deep challenges that could jeopardize
its position in the world economy. At least in the economic realm, the
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18. Brazilian model seems to have surpassed the EU model. Lula himself
referred to this dynamics:
Brazil was one of the last countries to be hit by
the crisis and one of the first to recover from it.
Why? Because we had reorganized the eco-
nomy along solid foundations, based on
growth, stability, productivity, on a healthy fi-
nancial system, on the access to credit and on
social inclusion. And when the effects of the
crisis began to reach us, we strengthened, wit-
hout hesitation, the basis of our model (LULA
DA SILVA, 2010).
In short, it is plausible to conclude that the crisis has helped Brazilian
policy makers underline the power shifts and global transformations
empowering the Latin American region and weakening traditionally
dominant players, particularly Europe. The crisis is thus portrayed as
a factual confirmation of the “era of Brazil” rhetoric, as captured in
an interview Lula gave to the Spanish daily El Mundo in 2009:
I am convinced that the 21
st
century is the cen-
tury of Brazil. We are living an exceptional mo-
ment. Despite the crisis, we are creating, this
year, more than 1,4 million new formal jobs,
while millions of work positions were and are
being sacrificed in the rich countries (LULA
DA SILVA, 2009).
The EU’s crisis: A failure of deep
integration?
Although the overall discourse depicts a rapidly changing world in
which Brazil and the Latin American region become more influential
and traditional powers such as Europe lose leadership, Brazil and the
EU are still described as important partners (e.g. a bilateral strategic
partnership was signed in 2007), which should work together toward
ending the crisis. Within the new global context, however, Brazil fe-
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19. els entitled to turn things around and give lessons to Europe, follo-
wing Amorim’s remark that “the European Union is now seeking
Brazil’s partnership”, rather than the other way around (PAIVA,
2008).
The major Brazilian daily, Folha de S. Paulo, refers to a European
“Lost Decade”, drawing a gloomy parallel with the Brazilian econo-
mic crisis of the 1980s (FREIRE, 2011). “What they are living
through is very similar to what we lived through in the 1980s. This
crisis is one of long duration”, writes prominent journalist Miriam
Leitão, who concludes that “Europe will have to perform a major res-
tructuring of its debts, as we did here in Brazil” (LEITÃO, 2011).
The idea that Europe must learn from Brazil, which to an extent re-
verses previous patterns of thinking, is welcomed with an underlying
sense of achievement and pride, as illustrated in an op-ed by promi-
nent journalist Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr. (2010):
The dynamics that lead to these situations is an
old acquaintance of us here in Latin America.
In this matter, modesty aside, we could even
export some know-how to the Europeans, who
had not experienced such a regional dimension
crisis for a while. [...] Brazil is well. We are go-
ing to lend money to Greece, via the IMF.
Indirectly, these discussions express doubts about the capacity of Eu-
rope to stay on course and a general criticism against the behavior of
traditional powers. In Lula’s words, “the crisis was born in the advan-
ced economies. It is the consequence of blind belief in the auto-regu-
lation capability of markets and, in great measure, of the lack of con-
trol over the activities of financial agents” (LULA DA SILVA,
2008a). Some point out that many European countries, especially the
so-called PIIGS, lived with an illusion of prosperity, “financing
themselves at low cost by adopting the Euro as currency and living
under the shelter of the European Central Bank” (DESORDEM…,
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20. 2011). As pointed out by Holden in this volume, these critiques draw
attention to the perils of integration, particularly of monetary union,
for weaker and poorer states, suggesting more caution is needed
when considering “how much” to integrate.
This in turn leads to various claims that the EU as a whole no longer
deserves the place of power it occupies in the international system. In
the words of Roberto Jaguaribe, Brazilian Ambassador to London:
Europe has suffered important losses in its po-
wer and significance. It does not seem reasona-
ble that European countries with proportiona-
tely important economies keep superior shares
of global governance institutions than countri-
es with much bigger economies. There needs to
be a correction (GALLAS, 2010).
The feeling that the EU currently weighs more in global governance
than it should and that it may need to be resized in the global reshuf-
fling of roles and power feeds into the Brazilian objective of achie-
ving a reform of global multilateral organizations. Describing the
Brazilian view on the much-needed reforms of global governance,
Mantega (2010) comments: “We see that Europe is losing its expres-
sion. What is the reform about? It is about reducing the participation
of advanced countries, that are less dynamic, and enhancing the
emerging countries, that are more dynamic”.
ThedeclineofEurope,whichremains akeycommercialandpolitical
partner of Brazil, is also perceived as a threat. “From our point of
view”, writes Leitão (2011), “the ideal scenario is for Europe to ma-
nage its crisis the sooner the better, since the region is a great partner
of Brazil.” In a 2010 interview Mantega (2010) also expressed con-
cerns that “if European economies grow less, it means that they will
import less Brazilian products”.
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21. Thus, while tendencies to regard the crisis as a failure of the Europe-
an approach and a success for Brazil, economic interdependence and
– to a certain extent – political partnership with the EU counterbalan-
ce triumphalism regarding the decline of Europe. Thus, the final as-
sessment is more nuanced than a generic analysis may suggest. Due
to contrasting dynamics and more self-interested preoccupations, it
seems fair to argue that Brazil views the impact of the EU crisis on its
prospects of economic leadership and regional integration with “mi-
xed feelings”.
CELAC: A Different Model
for Regional Integration?
Some conclusions regarding a new approach towards regional inte-
gration on Brazil’s behalf can be drawn by its full support – in 2010 –
of the creation of CELAC. CELAC was created in 2010 as a new me-
chanism of consultation for political and integration affairs, inclu-
ding 33 countries in Latin America, Central America and the Carib-
bean. Its main “designers” were Brazil and Mexico. According to
some views, it represents a quest for a new kind of regionalism, with
the ability and flexibility not only to overcome some of the region’s
most enduring disagreements, but also to develop a common voice
for the continent in key areas, which would help achieve the regions’
goals and increase its international insertion (FAGUNDES, 2010).
The Brazilian government described its views regarding CELAC as a
mechanism to contribute to the enhancement of political dialogue, as
well as to the creation of cooperation projects for Latin America and
the Caribbean. Through its engagement with CELAC, it claims to
pursue the formation of a regional identity, as well as common Carib-
beanandLatinAmericanpositionsonintegrationanddevelopment.
CELAC is a union of two previous initiatives: the Rio Group and
CALC (Cúpula América Latina e Caribe sobre Integração e Desen-
volvimento). In the 2011 Caracas Summit, CELAC officially inheri-
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22. ted all the agreements of its predecessors (ITAMARATY, s/d). Inte-
restingly, CELAC has a significant political dimension: it inherited
the 19 dialogue partnerships established through the Rio Group.3
One of the political objectives of CELAC is to weaken the influence
of the United States in the area, creating an alternative body to the
Organization of American States (OAS), historically dominated by
the US. Thus CELAC was conceived as the vehicle through which
Latin America would express its positions on the main debates regar-
ding the international community, and the norms and rules that go-
vern it, as well as regarding transnational challenges. One of
CELAC’s main roles is to be the voice of Latin America and the Ca-
ribbean towards other players, but also in the engagement with multi-
lateral and regional organizations. In July 2013, the first meeting of
CELAC’s social affairs committee ministers defined that another key
part of the organization’s goals would be the development of a com-
mon agenda for the fight against poverty in the region.
One of the main points of departure from previous integration pro-
cesses in the region to CELAC is in the abandonment of the open re-
gionalism model as a priority of the integration efforts, replaced by a
new form of regionalism and association. There seems to be conside-
rable consensus on the need for a new model of integration in the re-
gion, one that links political cooperation with the preservation of so-
vereignty, rather than with commercial integration. This second pha-
se of the regional integration process has been referred to as “post-li-
beral regionalism”, redirecting the main goals from economic inte-
gration and market liberalization to political alignment (SERBIN,
2011). This moves away from the neofunctionalist EU model. At the
same time, it carries with it fundamental assumptions regarding so-
vereignty and its undisputed nature. This new regionalism is more
clearly expressed through the construction of resistance blocs
(JARAMILLO, 2011). Therefore, there is general consensus among
analysts that a new form of regionalism has emerged, in which eco-
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23. nomic aspects are secondary to political ones and sovereignty has as-
sumed a fundamental role. This new type of regionalism points to a
new set of functions, such as: building consensus; raising the number
of players involved in the actions promoted; promoting flexible insti-
tutional goals, which allows the participation of a diverse set of pla-
yers; democratizing the decisions involving international public go-
ods; developing new webs of linkage on specific themes.
In her speech during the CELAC launch summit, Brazilian President
Dilma Roussef affirmed that CELAC is a demonstration of the coun-
tries’own capacity to look at themselves and identify the geopolitical
and strategic importance they have in the region. Interestingly, the
Brazilian leader cited Europe’s difficult moment and growing fears
that the EU might disintegrate, as an indication that the response ne-
eds to be a new paradigm, based on social justice and inclusion. Of
course, there are significant challenges to the success of CELAC, in-
cluding the need to achieve balance between cooperation, sovere-
ignty and solidarity; the generation of opportunities for develop-
ment; the establishment of mechanisms that allow for the constructi-
on of a Latin American and Caribbean identity; establishing effective
decision making processes; and defining an approach towards insti-
tutionalization (ARAVENA, 2012).
But the departure from the certainty that the EU model is the way to
go,as incorporatedintherhetoricandpracticeoftheBrazilianendor-
sement of CELAC, can be interpreted as an indication of an era of re-
consideration of so the called “best practices” or models of integrati-
on, whether from the EU or elsewhere.
Conclusions
Throughout the past decade, the EU has served as an example and a
model in Brazilian official discourse on regional integration and in-
ter-regionalism. However the outbreak of the Euro-crisis in 2008 has
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24. severely challenged the appeal of this model in terms of its sustaina-
bility and utility as an instrument of regional cooperation. As a con-
sequence, perceptions of the European integration in Brazilian fore-
ign policy have undergone substantial change, casting doubts on the
appropriateness of EU-style integration for the Latin American con-
tinent. Disillusionment with the European integration ideal of an
ever-closer union, will most likely lead Brazil to a more cautious ap-
proach to monetary, if not also political, integration in the region. Lu-
la’s 2008 suggestion that South America is heading towards a com-
mon currency (RADIOBRÁS, 2008) is not likely to resurface anyti-
me soon.
As has been shown, the crisis in Europe, with the resulting internal
divisions among Member States, has been viewed by Brazil through
the lens of global transformations and a power shift from North to
South, thus corroborating the thesis that as Brazil and other new pla-
yers rise, old powers decline.
At the same time, the attractiveness of the EU as an important com-
mercial partner is still shared by most policy makers. To this day, the
future of the Euro and the EU is a matter of debate among Brazilian
policy makers and opinion leaders. Public opinion is divided and the
media presents multiple views. On the one hand, some believe that
the Eurozone is being strengthened by the current reforms. As com-
mented by the Minister of Finance, Guido Mantega (2010), “Europe-
an countries decided to make an effort to fight it, they decided to pla-
ce money and develop the tools, which, in my view, are effective.
They are working rapidly”. From this perspective, cooperation and
integration are processes that render a region stronger by providing
mechanisms for collective responses to crises and problems. In this
sense, the EU-model may maintain its attraction in spite of the turbu-
lent current scenario.
On the other hand, many are convinced that a prolonged crisis will
lead to further divisions within the EU, with negative repercussions
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25. on the sustainability of regional integration: “The truth is that Europe
as a whole got into tremendous trouble. The economies of other de-
veloped countries including the US also have serious problems but
the most vulnerable region is clearly Europe, both the developed and
the emerging Europe” (BATISTA JR., 2010).
Lula’s pronouncement on the occasion of the fourth EU-Brazil Sum-
mit in 2010 that “the successful experience of the European Union is
crucial for Latin Americans, and will enrich the European Union’s
relations with Latin America and the Caribbean” (July 14th, 2010)
suggests that the EU model of integration still holds soft power for
Brazilian policy makers. Nevertheless, the Euro-crisis leaves little
doubt to Brazilian observers that Europe needs increased solidarity,
compromise and a rescue plan if it intends to survive united. In the
context of regionalism in Latin America, caution against the perils of
“too much integration” has become more common in the Brazilian
narrative on Europe. How this will impact Brazil’s traditional push
for more integration in South America is yet unclear and will need
further examination and research, some of which should undoub-
tedly focus on the evolution of CELAC and Brazil’s participation in a
new type of regionalism in South and Latin America.
Notes
1. According to Haas, the spillover is “the expansive logic of sector integrati-
on”. Liberalization of trade within the customs union would lead to harmoniza-
tion of general economic policies and eventually spill over into political areas
and lead to the creation of some kind of political community (HAAS, 1958, p.
311). For Lindberg spillover refers to a situation in which a given action, related
to a specific goal, creates a situation in which the original goal can be assured
only by taking further actions, which in turn create a further condition and a
need for more action, and so forth (LINDBERG, 1963, p. 10). The concept is
central in the neofunctionalist approach to regional integration that became a vi-
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26. brant field of research in the 1960s and gave rise to research on regional integra-
tion beyond Europe (HAAS; SCHMITTER, 1964).
2. Author’s interview with Loukas Tsoukalis, Athens, January 6th, 2011.
3. These dialogues include : the EU, Gulf Cooperation Council, China, Rus-
sia, Canada, India, Japan, South Korea, ASEAN, Israel, Ukraine, Arab League,
G-77, GUUAM Group (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldo-
va), CEI, Australia, USA and the African Union. Source: Itamaraty.
http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/temas/america-do-sul-e-integracao-regional/ce-
lac.
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Abstract
Brazil and Regional Integration in
South America: Lessons from the
EU’s Crisis
This paper introduces the idea of the EU as a ‘model’ of regional
integration, linking it to the literature on Europe as a normative power. The
second part discusses the influence of the EU model on regional
Elena Lazarou
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33. cooperation and integration in South America. In particular, it focuses on
the discursive use of the model in Brazilian foreign policy during the two
tenures of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva as a dominant rhetoric for the
promotion of regional integration, especially in the case of the Mercado
Común del Sur(Common Market of the South, MERCOSUR) and the
Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (Union of South American Nations,
UNASUR). The last part looks at the impact of the financial crisis on the
‘deconstruction’ of this ideal model of European integration and attempts
to discern how this will influence the future discourse on regional
cooperation integration in South America, and primarily in Brazil. To
illustrate the shift that has occurred in Brazilian views of regionalism, this
part also discusses the Brazilian support of a new form of regional
integration, as embodied in the creation of CELAC, the Community of
Latin American and Caribbean States.
Keywords: Brazil – European Union – Regionalism – Mercosur – Unasur –
South America
Brazil and Regional Integration in South
America: Lessons from the EU’s Crisis
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