De Río a Madrid¿hacia una "asociación estratégica" entre la Unión Europea y América Latina?

Resum

The traditional pattern of relationship between the European Union and Latin America underwent a striking transformation in the 90�s, which culminated at the Rio Summit with the formulation of an ambitious project of «strategic association» between the two regions. A second biregional summit was held in Madrid in May 2002 on the occassion of the Spain�s holding the Presidency of the EU Council. This represented a good opportunity to reflect on the significance and reach of this alliance, on the level of development there has been over the past three years, and on future prospects. This report addresses these points and approches the analysis of the above questions from an essentially European perspective. Hence it can be affirmed that during its initial stage the «strategic association» project was characterized by its lack of dynamism and by the severe inequalities existing at its core, both between countries or subgroups of participating countries and also between different material aspects of the association: political, economic and co-operative.