The Political Economy of EU-LAC relations after the 2008 crisis

The European Union - Latin America and the Caribbean Foundation (EU-LAC Foundation) was created as a result and initiative of the VI Summit of Heads of State and Government in May 2010 and formally began operating in November 2011.

With its headquarters in the city of Hamburg, Germany, the Foundation now consists of 33 member states from Latin America and the Caribbean, 28 member states from the European Union as well as a representative of the European Union as a whole. A total of 62 members.

The aim of the Foundation is to transform and adapt the strategic partnership between the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean -adopted in 1999 - into a strengthened and visible reality where the respective societies in both these regions can actively participate.Abstract:
The global economic crisis of 2008 has had a significant impact on political and economic relations between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean, even if some elements of this impact were invisible at first sight or had only an indirect or preliminary character. In the framework of the Explore Programme, the EU-LAC Foundation launches a six-monthly Open Call for Research Projects. Through these calls, it promotes research on topics relevant to the bi-regional strategic partnership. This study is the result of the research project of the Second Semester 2013 edition of the Open Call, awarded to a consortium of researchers from demosEUROPA (Poland) and Fundación de Investigaciones Económicas Latinoamericanas (FIEL, Argentina) , headed by Pawel Zerka, Marcela Cristini and Guillermo Bermúdez.

"The Political Economy of EU-LAC Relations after the 2008 Financial Crisis" analyses, among others, the changing economic interests, socio-economic megatrends and EU-LAC relations in the framework of G-20, in order to better understand the impact of the economic crisis. Additionally, the authors describe the possible future scenarios and suggest a number of recommendations to better exploit the potential of political and economic bi-regional cooperation.