European Union and Mercosur: prospects of an agreement in the current geopolitical climate

Abstract

There have been major geopolitical changes on the international landscape over the last three years, not to mention the consolidation of other transformations with deeper roots. To what extent, and how, does this new international context reframe the prospects of firming up the “agreement in principle” between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur approved in 2019? Working from an eclectic theoretical framework, which combines geopolitical and geoeconomic approaches with consideration of the impact of material and ideational factors, this paper takes a longitudinal view, drawing on a wide variety of sources, to try to shed light on the chances and prospects of an agreement of this type in the new global settings.

Keywords

• european union
• mercosur
• association agreement
• trade
• geopolitics