The European Community’s Contradictory External Behaviour: The Promotion of Integration in Latin America in the Late 1980s

The need for a policy toward the Latin American region was being discussed within the European Community (EC) in the 1980s. Within this debate, two relevant discourses can be traced. One highlighted the relevance of a Latin American interlocutor, which led to the EC and the Rio Group meetings in 1987. The other was against the opening of an interregional dialogue on the Latin American debt. These discourses had contradictory outcomes for the Latin-American interstate cooperation. One improved it due to the recognition of a regional group; the other disregarded the attempt to have a common Latin-American voice.