The Experience of European Integration and the Potential for Integration in South America

IBEI Working Paper No. 2007/6

27 Pages Posted: 28 Feb 2007

See all articles by Andrés Malamud

Andrés Malamud

Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon

Philippe C. Schmitter

European University Institute

Date Written: February 2007

Abstract

The experience of the European Union is the most significant and far-reaching among all attempts at regional integration. It is, therefore, the most likely to provide some lessons for those world regions that are just beginning this complex process. In turn, the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) and the Andean Community (CAN) are among the regional integration projects that have reached the greatest level of formal accomplishment after the EU. MERCOSUR is a customs union that aspires to become a common market, while avowing the commitment to advance towards political integration. For its part, CAN is a customs union that has already developed supranational institutions such as a Commission, a Parliament and a Court of Justice. In both cases, however, words have progressively tended to wander far from deeds. One reason underlying this phenomenon may be a misunderstanding of the European experience with integration. In this article, we discuss the theories that have been developed to account for integration in Europe and may prove useful to understand integration elsewhere and put forward a set of lessons that could be drawn from the European experience. Subsequently, we introduce a description of the experience of integration in South America and reflect (critically) on how the theories and lessons drawn from the EU could be applied to this region - and beyond.

Keywords: Regional Integration, Integration Theories, Comparative Regionalism, European Union, Mercosur, Andean Community

Suggested Citation

Malamud, Andrés and Schmitter, Philippe C., The Experience of European Integration and the Potential for Integration in South America (February 2007). IBEI Working Paper No. 2007/6, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=965798 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.965798

Andrés Malamud (Contact Author)

Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon ( email )

Av. Prof. Anibal de Bettencourt, 9
Lisboa, 1600-189
Portugal

Philippe C. Schmitter

European University Institute ( email )

Badia Fiesolana
Via dei Roccettini 9
I-50016 San Domenico Fiesole, Tuscany 50014
Italy

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