The role of summits in the development of interregional cooperation programs between the European Union and Latin America: The cases of Eurosocial and Euroclima

Kivonat, rövid leírás

In 1999, a strategic partnership between the European Union (EU) and Latin America was established with the aim of strengthening political dialogue, cooperation initiatives and economic ties between the two regions. A set of biennial summits convening the Heads of State and Government was held to foster mutual understanding and address shared challenges. However, these summits were interrupted from 2015 to 2023 due to several internal and external circumstances that hindered the continuity of high-level political dialogue. Against this background, it is crucial to inquire about the significance of these meetings, the implications of their interruption, and the evolution of interregional cooperation during the non-summits period. In particular, this research aims to identify the role of summits between the Heads of State and Government of the EU and Latin America in the development of interregional cooperation programs and to what extent the lack of summits affected the functioning of these programs. To this end, a comprehensive study was conducted through the analysis of two case studies: Eurosocial and Euroclima. These cooperation programs were created by a mandate of the summits to address the issues of social inclusion and sustainable development, respectively. To conduct this study, a time framework of ten years was selected, encompassing two specific periods: from 2010 to 2015, referred to as the summits period, and from 2016 to 2020, identified as the non-summits period. A multi-method qualitative methodology was implemented by conducting a three-phase process of data collection and analysis, which involved the examination of interviews and primary documents. The results of this research revealed that summits play the role of providing guidelines that shape the operating mechanisms and implementation processes of cooperation programs. The main consequence of the lack of summits was the lack of new summit-driven guidelines. However, the continuity of the cooperation programs was not affected by the absence of summits due to their adherence to old summit-driven guidelines, which became structural characteristics of these programs, and the incorporation of new guidelines from external sources, such as regional forums in the case of Euroclima and international practices in the case of Eurosocial. Furthermore, the building of relational capital and the uninterrupted EU budget allocation also ensured the continuity of these cooperation programs during the non-summits period. These findings contribute to enriching the debate on the usefulness and relevance of summits and shed light on the factors that strengthen interregional cooperation programs during non-summits periods by providing empirical evidence from the case studies of Eurosocial and Euroclima.