Ewolucja stosunków ekonomicznych między Ameryką Łacińską a Unią Europejską

Abstract

The article presents the integration process between Latin America and the European Union that might contribute to better political and economical relations between the two continents (including multilateralism, social cohesion and politic agreements). For Latin-American countries their economical development has been the priority towards which they aim using many different economical strategies (import substitution, pro-export strategy, neo-liberal strategy), unfortunately, mostly struggling to achieve the expected effects. In 1990s, following the economic crisis that seriously undermined economic development of the largest Latin American countries, a period of real progress began. Latin America is the continent for which the United  States were the major trade partner for a long time. The largest and the best-developed Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, mostly relied in their trade relations upon their American partners. Over time, as their economies developed, becoming competitive in the global market, they began to look for alternative ways of promoting their goods and invest capabilities beyond the U.S. market. It is in this respect that close relations with the European Union may become attractive and beneficial for them, the EU being an organization providing their partners with significant opportunities. The purpose of this article is to reveal benefits of the process of integration between the two continents. The process in fact may bring bilateral profits, enabling Latin America to develop thanks to European investors (through foreig direct investment among other things) and the European Union to become the major shareholder in vast Latin-American markets.