La Asociación Estratégica UE - Brasil (vol. I) Retórica y Pragmatismo en las Relaciones Euro-Brasileñas

This paper analyzes the Strategic Partnership (SP) established between the EU and Brazil in 2007, from a Brazilian perspective. The SP should have been the finishing touch to a fifty-year relationship, but it came as an effort that proved to be too little and too late. On the one hand, the Brazilian diversification on trading and Lula's ideological profile towards a foreign policy that looks to the South, have reduced the EU's weight in the Brazilian foreign policy agenda or, at least, has made it so that the EU is no longer a priority for Brazil. On the other hand, by excluding trading, the SP is weak from the get-go because it does not reflect the main interest of both partners. However, undoubtedly, the agreement would mean a boost to Brazil's international role and, despite the bilateral oppositions it would open up the pathways of cooperation between both factions, which is very important for Brazil.