The Sixth EU-Brazil Summit: business beyond the usual?
After much foot-dragging and hesitation, the European Union (EU) and Brazil may be inching towards a new level of cooperation. Both sides would benefit greatly from an enhanced partnership. Following over forty years of diplomatic, political and economic engagement, in 2007 Brazil became a ‘strategic’ partner of the EU. For some time now, observers have been expecting significant progress in the partnership. Yet, controversies stemming from the legacy of European colonialism and its perception in South America, from ideological differences and, last but not least, from the prolonged impasse in negotiations on a free trade agreement between the EU and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), have so far led to limited results …
ESPO Policy Brief 8, March 2013.
(Photo credit: EU, The Council of the European Union)